Pioneering in the Congo

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B^ JOHN M, XPRINGER

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REV. AND MRS. JOHN M. SPRINGER

PIONEERING IN
THE CONGO

By
JOHN McKENDREE SPRINGER

Author of The Heart of Central Africa

THE KATANGA PRESS

150 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY

LOAN STACK

COPYRIGHT, 1916,
BY JOHN M. SPRINGER

SECOND EDITION

PRINTED BY

THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN

-gyms

THIS NARRATIVE IS WRITTEN MAINLY IN THE FIRST
PERSON SINGULAR, BUT ALSO AT TIMES IN THE
PLURAL, AND IT HAS BEEN WITTINGLY AND FIT-
TINGLY SO IN EACH CASE. ONE THERE IS WHO
FOR MORE THAN TEN YEARS HAS SHARED WITH
ME ALMOST EVERY THOUGHT, PLAN, JOURNEY, AND

HARDSHIP, AS WELL AS EVERY JOY AND RICH
DIVINE COMPANIONSHIP IN THE SERVICE HERE RE-
CORDED; AND SO FULLY HAS HER LIFE FLOWED
OUT IN A RARE SINGLENESS OF DEVOTION TO THE
WORK WHICH SHE CHOSE TO SHARE WITH ME, AND
TO WHICH SHE FELT ALSO A LIKE PERSONAL CALL,
AND SO LARGE HAS BEEN HER PART IN THE PREP-
ARATION OF THIS NARRATIVE, THAT SHE MUST BE
RECORDED AS JOINT AUTHOR, AND THAT ONE IS

MY WIFE
HELEN EMILY SPRINGER

338

THE CONGO MISSION

IS AN ANSWER
TO

PRAYER

BY
MANY INTERCESSORS

MAY THE PERUSAL OF THIS
NARRATIVE INSPIRE MANY
OTHERS TO PREVAILING
PRAYER FOR THE EXTENSION

OF THE

KINGDOM

CONTENTS

CHAPTEB PAGE

INTRODUCTION ix

I. THE FIRST JOURNEY 1

II. STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 12

III. KALULUA TO LUKOSHI 25

IV. BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 38

V. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS AND ITINERATING. .. 62

VI. FLOODS AND FEVER 68

VII. LANGUAGE STUDY 82

VIII. ON TO MWATA YAMVO 97

IX. KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA 114

X. MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO, THE CAPITAL

OF MWATA YAMVO 125

XI. AT MUSUMBA (CONTINUED) 139

XII. LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 160

XIII. THROUGH DILOLO 176

XIV. A DELUGE OF BELGIANS 195

XV. SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI 201

XVI. THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI 213

XVII. KAMBOVE 225

XVIII. A NEW EPOCH 241

XIX. THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 260

XX. A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 279

XXI. As TO THE FUTURE 298

APPENDIX . 313

vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

REV. AND MRS. JOHN M. SPBINGEB FRONTISPIECE

FACING PAGE

VILLAINOUS LOOKING FERRYMEN 16

ON THE TRACTION ROAD, KANSANSHI-BAYA 16

Fox BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL, KALULUA, 1910 26

A SITE CARVED Our OF THE WILDERNESS 42

MUSHROOMS 88

JIM BAKING BREAD IN CAMP 88

MR. AND MRS. SPRINGER ON WHEELS 88

DENTISTRY, AN INCIDENTAL PROFESSION 88

MPERETE'S VILLAGE AND PRESENT 102

MWATA YAMVO IN MACHILLA 132

MWATA YAMVO AT THE EVENING SERVICE 132

LUKOSHI STATION, 1912 208

KAYEKA AND FAMILY 218

Fox BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL, LUKOSHI, 1913 218

CAPE-TO-CAIRO RAILWAY REACHES KAMBOVE 232

KAMBOVE STATION AFTER DEPARTURE OF TRAIN 232

DR. AND MRS. PIPER AT KAMBOVE 246

MISSION HOUSE AT MWATA YAMVO'S 246

MWATA YAMVO AND A FEW OF His WIVES 246

ORE TRUCKS FROM STAR OF THE CONGO MINE 262

JACOB INTERPRETING AT RAILWAY SERVICE 262

A SERVICE IN COMPOUND AT SMELTER 262

MOTHER MILLER AND WOMEN 262

THE HILL AND BUILDINGS, KAMBOVE MISSION 266

BISHOP HARTZELL AND MISSION GROUP, 1915 266

THE VICTORIA FALLS 274

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 288

CHURCH, STATE, COMMERCE 308

LIVINGSTONE'S MONUMENT, CHITAMBO 312

MAP OF CENTRAL AFRICA 317

MAP OF CENTRAL AFRICA SHOWING PROTESTANT MIS-
SIONS 318

viii

INTRODUCTION
BY BISHOP J. 0. HARTZELL, D.D., LL.D.

THERE is a new Africa, and a part of the
world, especially the commercial interests of
Europe as well as of America, have fully awak-
ened to that fact. The great missionary ex-
plorer David Livingstone opened the path
into and across Central Africa, and reported
to the world, highlands in the interior with
salubrious climate, and with indications of
vast wealth of gold, copper, and ivory, and the
possibilities of unlimited water power, where
mighty rivers descended in magnificent falls,
from the elevated watersheds and plateaus of
the interior. After Livingstone, came other
missionaries who confirmed and enlarged the
report. Traders and prospectors followed in
increasing numbers, until the discovery of
diamonds at Kimberley, of gold at Johannes-
burg, and of gold and copper at various other
parts of the continent, awakened the keen
interest of Europe and led to more extended
explorations. Then the industrial centers of

x INTRODUCTION

Great Britain, of Germany, and of France
were looking for new markets for their prod-
ucts, and a continent of nearly 150,000,000
people waiting to be clothed, appealed to the
imagination.

The last quarter of the past century wit-
nessed a great scramble for continental
"spheres" for trade in this great continent.
Then in 1884 — at the Berlin conference —
there was a partition of nearly all of the
12,500,000 square miles of Africa, among the
powers of Europe ; an arrangement which con-
tinued until the war of 1914. Traders have
pressed on into all parts, until it is the rare
village even in the remotest regions, where
cloth from Birmingham, blankets from Ham-
burg, and beads from Vienna are not in evi-
dence. The governments have policed all
parts and have caused the inter-tribal wars
to cease; have crushed out the inter- tribal
slave traffic, and are making great headway
in the ultimate abolition of domestic slavery
everywhere. In a little more than a brief
quarter of a century has been witnessed the
industrial and political occupation of prac-
tically all of this vast continent. Christian
missions originally led in this modern move-
ment, but they have in these later years been

INTKODUCTION xi

left behind, and to-day more than half of the
population of Africa — more nearly three
fourths — have never seen the missionary, and
are without the privileges of the church and
the school. v

But the line of missions has ever been slowly
advancing, through the heroic faith and noble
consecration of men and women called of God.
This narrative tells of a notable advance of
missions in Africa, and any one wishing to
study the details of such progress will find
here a mine of information.

The Kev. and Mrs. John M. Springer have
been missionaries to Africa for fourteen years.
It has fallen to their lot to labor continually
in what the world regards as Livingstone's
country. Their first period of nearly six years
was spent in the gold-bearing region of Manica
land, first spoken of by Livingstone in 1857,
and where, at Old Umtali, they were in the
midst of the gold belt from which, in all prob-
ability, gold was taken nearly three thousand
years ago and shipped to Jerusalem in the
ships of Hiram and Solomon, for the adorn-
ment of the great temple. Mr. and Mrs.
Springer are both of pioneer families, and
since their marriage in 1905 have been one in
rare union of endeavor, devoted to exploration

xii INTRODUCTION

and of missionary pioneering. Probably no
other persons have touched Livingstone's trail
at so many and so widely separate points as
they. In their trip to the Zambesi River in
1906, in exploring the district of which Mr.
Springer was superintendent, they came on
Livingstone's trail along the Zambesi River
above the Kabrabasa Rapids, and followed
it down that river four hundred miles to
Senna, near Shupanga, where Mary Living-
stone's body rests, her grave cared for by a
Roman Catholic Mission. Later that year
they crossed his path at Victoria Falls, where
were spent three days in contemplation of that
marvelous cataract. Then, in 1907, on their
long journey to the west coast, they started
from Broken Hill, three hundred miles north-
east of Sesheka, where Livingstone started on
his first great trip, and going northwest they
continually approached Livingstone's trail
until they reached it near Lake Dilolo, and
from there to the west coast for six hundred
miles followed it approximately.

In 1910 it was my privilege to appoint Mr.
and Mrs. Springer to the Lunda country, of
which Livingstone wrote in his first book. By
extensive travel in Central Africa, they com-
pleted the exploration of that field, and in

INTRODUCTION xiii

1913 built stations at two strategic centers.
January 2, 1915, I met with them and others
in conference at Kambove, and organized the
Congo Mission of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. We sat only two hundred and fifty
miles from Chitambo Village, where David
Livingstone, in the heart of Africa, upon his
knees, in prayer, commended his spirit to his
God and entered into his rest. His face, at
that very time, was turned in the direction of
the vast copper mines, near which we gathered
for this conference.

This small conference met in council in that
unhappy interior land that had been raided
by slavers from the east and from the west.
From the east for decades, if not for centuries,
had come the Arabs with their guns, and with
a force of natives from near the coast, to cap-
ture and enslave native Africans. The victims
were taken to the neighboring hills of mala-
chite ; made to smelt copper in crude furnaces
still existing in the country; loaded with ore
and marched to the east coast, where copper
and slaves were sold. From the west coast had
come native tribes, sometimes alone and some^
times headed by half-caste Portuguese and
other degenerate white men, who had also
raided these interior tribes for slaves to supply

xiv INTRODUCTION

the North American markets, and later to
supply laborers for the cocoa islands along the
west coast. Thus had the population of the
interior been decimated. In the regions of
this vast mineral belt are the tag ends of fifty
or more tribes that had escaped from these
various raids.

Livingstone's great and particular conse-
cration had been, like that of Lincoln's in
America, to abolish the slave traffic as a neces-
sary clearing of the ground for the building
of the Kingdom. It is interesting in this con-
nection to note that at Sarenge, near Chi-
tambo, where the heart of that great explorer
rests under a monument erected to his
memory, there was established in 1907 the
Livingstone Memorial Mission. For this pur-
pose his nephew, the Rev. Malcolm Moffat,
grandson of Robert Moffat, was sent out by
the Free Church of Scotland, and in the years
intervening, between 1907 and the Livingstone
Centennial in 1913, Mr. Moffat had been able
to effect the translation of the four Gospels
into the language of the people of that region.
About this same year he was joined in his
mission work by two grandchildren of David
Livingstone, children of his daughter Anna
Mary, who married Rev. Wilson, a missionary

INTRODUCTION xv

of Sierra Leone. These two are Hubert Liv-
ingstone Wilson, M.D., and Kuth Livingstone
Wilson, a trained nurse, who have joined their
cousin at this Livingstone Memorial Mission.

What a great contrast throughout that
country since Livingstone's day. Here in the
region toward which his faltering steps, broken
by the years of racking fever, were headed;
and which he was unable to reach, we now sat
in a well appointed house, and I had come into
that region from Cape Town, twenty-five hun-
dred miles from the south, in a comfortable
train of European cars, with excellent dining
and sleeping service. Throughout the land
government was established, commerce was
active, and mining companies were spending
millions of dollars in development, and were
employing tens of thousands of natives. Medi-
cal science was present, skilled surgeons and
nurses were at hand, and at Elisabethville was
a well laid out European town, with good
streets, electric lighted stores, high grade mov-
ing picture cinematograph ; dodging about the
streets were motor cycles, motor trucks, auto-
mobiles, and already the output of the smelt-
ing works supplied by three of the mines
was fifteen hundred tons of bar copper per
month. On coming through Elisabethville I

xvi INTRODUCTION

could scarcely believe that only five years be-
fore, this town site had been but virgin Cen-
tral Africa forest. Anew I was profoundly
impressed with the fact that the commercial
and industrial agencies of the world can com-
mand resources almost unlimited, while the
Kingdom of God must plod along supplied
with only paltry sums. And then what an
utter contrast from that early day of Living-
stone in the attitude toward the natives of
the region! Then they were being taken by
many thousands into hopeless slavery; now
government and commerce were seeking for
the concentration, in this rich mineral region,
of tens of thousands of workmen, while this
mining company has a large department,
which is really a separate organization, whose
sole business it is, under the management of
Mr. A. A. Thompson, who took me about in his
automobile, to secure an adequate number of
workmen for these mines. One batch of six
hundred natives, most of them Mohammedans,
had been brought from a point one thousand
miles east on the coast near Quilimane, and
had been transported at much expense by rail
through Beira, two thousand miles, to work
for a year on these mines, and then to be re-
turned to their homes.

INTRODUCTION xvii

This suggests the relation of the Moham-
medan world to the interior of Africa. The
commercial routes are now open and are being
extended. The rail communication is com-
pleted with the east coast right into this in-
terior region, and to the north the Cape-to-
Cairo route is nearing its completion, and soon
there will be similar communication from
Khartoum; and from Alexandria on the Nile
and the Mediterranean, both centers of Mo-
hammedan education and propaganda. Fol-
lowers of the False Prophet are as alert in
these days to take advantage of the commer-
cial routes and of railways to carry forward
their propaganda, as are commerce and Chris-
tian missions. To-day this interior region is
almost wholly virgin pagan soil ; to-morrow it
will be shot through with Islamism. How im-
portant that Christian missions be pushed
rapidly.

Mr. and Mrs. Springer, after five years of
strenuous pioneer work, were due for fur-
lough. On reaching home, instead of resting,
they entered upon an active campaign for se-
curing additional funds for carrying forward
the work for the next five years in the area of
the Congo Mission. With great faith they
blocked out the mission area of four hundred

xviii INTKODUCTION

miles square, in which the Methodist Epis-
copal Church is the only Protestant society.
This is an area the size of Michigan, Illinois,
and Indiana combined, and only two stations
for this vast area! What Johannesburg and
the rich gold regions about it are to South
Africa, this vast mineral area will be to Cen-
tral Africa, with its unlimited wealth of cop-
per, iron, lime, tin, and possibly of coal, gold,
and diamonds. Within this vast area are the
Victoria falls of the Congo, and several large
rivers. The climate is salubrious, resulting
from the elevation of four thousand feet above
sea level. Here are to meet the great conti-
nental railroad systems of Africa. Already
two of these railroad lines are complete, con-
necting with the south and east coasts at six
different ports, and with other lines under
construction connecting with the other coasts
of the continent.

There are great benefits to the country aris-
ing from the presence of stable governments
and of legitimate commerce and industry, but
their presence alone does not uplift the people ;
there is need also of the third great factor —
the church with the regenerating gospel of
Jesus Christ, which is needed by the incoming
foreigners quite as much as by the natives of

INTRODUCTION xix

the country. The best thought and methods
of the church for meeting the needs of the
people in other lands are required to solve the
problems arising from the complex conditions
found in these new centers in Africa. The
beginnings of this mission, with the agencies
of school, book store, press, and living evan-
gels, contain the true hope for the future of
this section, destined to be the commercial
and industrial capital of all Central Africa.

God has wonderfully led Mr. and Mrs.
Springer day by day and year by year. They
are one, in a noble and effective consecration
of heart and faith. They believe that the gospel
which has saved them spiritually is the funda-
mental need of the heathen world, and the one
weapon by which through the Divine Spirit
the Moslem world is to be redeemed.

In spite of discouragements, frequent illness
of body, owing to unhealthy climatic condi-
tions, they have wrought well. The Congo
Mission is the result of five years of unremit-
ting toil and sacrifice, and is a foundation well
laid. Its strategic importance to the multi-
tudes of native barbaric blacks in Central
Africa is very great, while the importance of
its relations to Mohammedanism in that sec-
tion of the continent cannot be overestimated.

xx INTRODUCTION

Another great fact concerning this mission
center is, that as the work among the Moslems
extends northward sooner or later it will
touch the advancing influences coming south-
ward, of the same type of work, being carried
forward by the Methodist Episcopal Church
and other mission bodies among the followers
of the false prophet in North Africa.

Twenty thousand dollars a year for the next
five years put into the work of that Congo
Mission would lay foundations permanent and
tremendous in their influence for the future
over a vast area of barbaric and Mohammedan
Africa.

December 3, 1915.

CHAPTER I
THE FIRST JOURNEY

Two months after we went into temporary
camp at the abandoned government post of
Kalulua, a tall, lean Lunda came to us. He
did not knock, as we had no door, but, making
his presence known, told me his story. He was
born seventy miles north of where we were at
that time, in the Lukoshi Valley. When a lad
of about ten or twelve years of age, a band of
natives from the Portuguese territory of An-
gola came to the interior to capture slaves for
the Angola and Saint Thomas markets. With
many others Kayeka was seized and taken
eight hundred miles west, where he was sold to
a native master, whose village was near one of
the mission stations of the American Board.
Evidently Kayeka's master was kind and he
permitted the youth to attend the Mission
School, where he was converted.

Not long after his conversion there came
upon Kayeka a burden for the salvation of his
people. He saw what the Mission was doing
for the Umbundu people among whom he was

1

2 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

then living and he began to pray for a mission-
ary for his own tribe. He married a young
Christian girl, also a slave, owned by another
master, and to them were born four children
to whom, as a good start in life, they gave the
names of Sarah, Rachel, Esther, and Moses.

Kayeka's prayers so impressed the congrega-
tion of erstwhile Umbundu slavers of his own
people that they finally said if he would go as
a missionary to his people they would send him
his support year after year. However, it was
impracticable for him to go alone, and when
the matter was presented to the missionaries,
they considered it carefully, but were obliged to
reply that it was impossible for them to extend
their field to the interior at that time, and so
the project had to be abandoned.

But Kayeka kept on praying. Caravans
laden with rubber were constantly returning
from the interior, many of them from the
Lunda country. Kayeka visited their camping
places at nights and asked them about the in-
terior and particularly whether there were any
missionaries among his people. He was always
answered in the negative.

Soon after the establishment of the Portu-
guese Republic, the officials in Angola were
informed that they were seriously to effect the

THE FIRST JOURNEY 3

emancipation of the slaves held in the country.
However, Kayeka seemed to consider himself
as beholden to his master and he was moved
to make this proposition to him. His master
should furnish him with trading goods and he
would go to the interior and buy rubber, the
profits of the trip to constitute his redemption
price. To this the master consented, and, leav-
ing his wife and babies as sort of hostages,
Kayeka left for the interior early in the year
of 1910, probably not long before the time that
we left America.

He had established himself at a village one
hundred and fifty miles west of Kalulua, and,
hearing of our arrival in the country, at once
came to see us, for while he was endeavoring to
secure his freedom, the main object of his jour-
ney to the interior was to find out the mission-
ary prospects for his tribe. I was very glad
to be able to assure him that we were appointed
to the Lunda people and that after the rains
were over we would advance into the Lunda
country. He told me of the earnest desire of
his heart to join in the work of the evangeliza-
tion of his people and of his prayers for years
for a missionary to come to his people. When
I asked him more particularly how long he had
been praying for this missionary he answered

4 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

somewhere between seven and ten years.
Thinking back to the time when I first felt a
definite responsibility for this interior part
of the continent, I noted that it was just seven
years previously. As this humble slave boy
stood before me and told of those years of
continued prayer for a missionary for his peo-
ple, there came to me an overwhelming con-
viction that while many others had been pray-
ing for the opening of mission work in the
heart of Africa, he was the instrument upon
whom God had laid the final burden of im-
portunate intercession that would not be
denied through many years. I was convinced
that before me stood the one who had prayed
us into Central Africa. And when I have since
recalled how time after time in the years 1905-
1906, in testing what was increasingly a com-
manding call to go and explore that interior
part of Africa on our way home to the United
States on furlough, we put it from us over and
again as an utterly impossible thing for us to
do, and the conviction came back to us each
time with increased force until we were im-
pelled and compelled to make that trip across
the continent, I have come to understand that
it was because this faithful pray-er who was
two thousand miles away on the other side of

THE FIRST JOURNEY 5

the continent was holding on to God in child-
like faith for his own Lunda people in their
unrelieved heathen darkness.

Kayeka remained with us two days witness-
ing in the villages about to the saving power
of God and then went back to complete his
trading. He was to bring in his wife and chil-
dren and join us somewhere to the north,
where we would be building a station the next
year. We shall be able to report later the safe
arrival of Kayeka and his party in the Lunda
country.

With this party of Kayeka's was a young
man named Kaluwasi of the adjoining tribe to
the east. Like Kayeka, he was about thirty-
five or forty years of age. He had never been
a slave, but on one occasion, when an Um-
bundu group of rubber traders had been in his
country, he had joined them as a carrier and
had gone to the same part of Angola as where
Kayeka was living. Kaluwasi married a
woman of that country and settled near one of
the Missions. He also had three or four chil-
dren.

On Kayeka's return from his rubber trading
expedition, the news soon spread that he was
to return to his country, as now there was a

6 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

missionary there to father and protect him.
This news came to the many villages of Baluba
in Angola and in KaluwasFs village there was
held a consultation which resulted in the de-
cision that one member should go into the in-
terior with Kayeka to spy out the land and the
conditions there and return and report as to
whether it were feasible for the Baluba to re-
turn to their country. These Baluba selected
Kaluwasi to be their representative and told
him that as he visited villages on his journey
and would be telling the gospel story they did
not want him, their representative, sitting on
the ground. So he must take a steamer chair
for such occasions, an article very commonly
used in their Christian homes in Angola.

Neither did they want him to carry his own
load, so they contributed a sum to pay a carrier
named Mbundu to accompany him. They re-
mained with us a month at Lukoshi in 1913,
and with letters to government officials these
two men started out on their long journey to
the north, and after some weeks reached the
former home of Kaluwasi on the banks of the
Lufungoi River. He found his father, some of
his brothers, and a few other near relatives,
and after spending two months there came
down to Kambove, whither we had moved in the

THE FIRST JOURNEY 7

?

meantime. When I asked him about his coun-
try and whether there were many people there,
he waved his hand in the direction of the trees
of the forest in which we were encamped and
said the people wrere many, many, like the trees
of the forest. Then he told us that when the
news of his arrival had spread in the villages,
the people came in and listened to his story,
especially to the message of his conversion and
of the new life in Christ. They kept him talk-
ing throughout the hours of the day, day after
day, new deputations coming and going. This
continued until he was weary and worn and
his voice completely gave out, and yet the depu-
tations would come in and they would plead
for just a few words. They sent a message by
him asking that a missionary be sent to settle
among them and bring them the blessing of the
Gospel and of education as well.

I was most delightfully surprised to find
that Kaluwasi was a mason. He was able to
lay the brick house for our residence at Kam-
bove, thus earning money to finance him on
his return to Angola to bring in his wife and
children.

In November, 1914, he returned from Angola
to the Belgian Congo at the head of a party of
four families and from Bukama he sent a mes-

8 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

sage to me at Kambove, but which reached
there after my departure, asking if his ("my")
missionary was ready now to go to his country
and whether he should go on and build the
house and the school so as to be ready for the
missionary on his arrival.

These two and their comrades are helpers
for our work in the Congo Mission that have
come out from the West, and others are at
hand that have come from the East also.

In April, 1914, I received a telegram from
Elisabethville to come down and baptize the
infant of a Belgian doctor there. I took with
me a young native evangelist and colporteur
and left him there to visit the various mining
camps, sell books, and get acquainted with the
situation and report to me, as I had very little
time to stay in Elisabethville myself. On his
return he reported great interest among the
young men, and I later sent him down on an-
other trip with additional books for sale. On
his return on that occasion he brought me a
petition signed by twenty-four native young
men from Nyasaland, who were Christians, but
who had no church privileges in Elisabethville.
They begged me to come down and organize a
church. In a month or two I was able to get

THE FIRST JOURNEY 9

away and respond to their request. I found
their leader to be one named Joseph Jutu.
Just about the time of my visit, there had come
to Elisabethville a young man named Moses
Kumwenda, who had been for some years a
teacher and evangelist in the Presbyterian Mis-
sion in Nyasaland. Joseph had been at Elisa-
bethville for three years or more. He had
faithfully gathered the men in on Sabbaths,
and on other occasions, for singing, Bible read-
ing, and prayer, trying thus to hold them true
to their Christian faith. He had seen scores
of his former classmates swept away by the
surging tide of temptation but had been able
to hold a few true to their profession. It is not
to be wondered at that so many of these native
young men had fallen, since the example of
many of the white men of the country is so
pernicious.

On the arrival of Moses, Joseph at once with
a rare spirit of modesty stepped back and said,
"You are my senior ; you must lead us." Moses
was also of a beautiful humble spirit and tried
to decline and urged Joseph to retain the
leadership of the little band in Elisabethville.
But Joseph insisted upon Moses assuming the
position of leader. These two men have
worked together with a rare spirit of unity and

10 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

devotion in caring for the infant church which
I organized there in December of that year.

Our presence in Central Africa and our asso-
ciation with these young men had come about
thus.

In 1901 I was appointed missionary to East
Africa and was stationed at Old Umtali. In
the party with which I went out was Mrs.
Helen E. Rasmussen, who in 1905 became my
wife. As I have already indicated, in 1903 there
came to me a very definite sense of responsi-
bility for the interior of Africa, which was but
the hinterland of the district in Rhodesia of
which I was then superintendent. After our
term of six years on the field, we returned to
America. We came across the continent, pro-
ceeding by rail via Bulawayo and Victoria
Falls to Broken Hill in northern Rhodesia, at
that time the head of the Cape-to-Cairo Rail-
road. On May 13, 1907, we left Broken Hill
with a caravan of fifty natives and, proceeding
northwest, visited the mining camps of Kan-
shanshi, Kambove, and Ruwi, also the mission
stations of the Plymouth Brethren at Kaleni
Hill and Kavungu, thence northwesterly for
six hundred miles to Malange in Angola. Dur-
ing the last stage of our journey we saw no

THE FIRST JOURNEY 11

white settlements. In this journey we had
skirted the southern part of the Lunda field,
but were not permitted to penetrate the coun-
try and visit the town of Mwata Yamvo be-
cause of the war which was then being prose-
cuted against the Waleji cannibals, who had
come into the country from the north. Our
travel by native trail of fifteen hundred miles
had been through country almost untouched
by missionary effort and the Lunda field to
the north of us, comprising a territory as large
as the States of Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana
combined, had not a single missionary. For
two years we gave the message of Africa to the
churches of America and in 1909, in connection
with the Africa Diamond Jubilee, pledges for
four thousand dollars per year for five years
were made for work in the interior of Africa.
On the basis of these pledges, the Board of
Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal
Church and Bishop Joseph C. Hartzell sent us
to open the work in the Lunda field.

Leaving America in February, 1910, we
spent three weeks in Sweden, speaking in the
churches there on our mission work in Africa,
and, returning to London, sailed for South
Africa and reached Cape Town in May, from
which point we proceeded to the north again.

CHAPTER II
STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN

ON June 2, 1910, after three years' absence,
Mrs. Springer and myself again arrived at
Broken Hill. We found the little depot in the
same place, nearly a mile from the town.
There was still but the one hotel ; this time it
was run by Mr. Boon and had by way of im-
provement a corrugated iron dining room. The
sleeping quarters were mud and pole huts as
of yore. The rates of three dollars a day also
remained the same. As our purse was in the
same state as three years previously, we re-
mained at the hotel just one day and then were
grateful for the offer of an old, two-roomed
mud and pole house belonging to the mine.
The secretary and caretaker of the mine prop-
erty, Mr. Teagle, loaned us a single cot bed
(all that he had at his disposal). The cot,
guiltless of a mattress, was, with two steamer
chairs we had brought with us, our only furni-
ture for some days. I was able to borrow a
soap box which we used as a table, and so we

12

STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 13

began our work again with the simplest equip-
ment imaginable.

We had brought with us from Cape Town four
of the boys whom we had left in Angola with
Brother Kipp. Jacob (you will recall) had
been a linker-in on the railroad when he first
came into contact with us nearly four years
previously and, although a man in his twenties,
his whole schooling up to that time had con-
sisted of six months in a village day school.
Three years had done wonders for him and I
was able to use him at once as interpreter and
evangelist. The other three boys, Jim, Mu-
sondo, and Songoro, were less developed,
though useful with some of the many dialects.

I found here now, as previously, that no
Christian work was being done for these native
workmen along the railroad construction, and
my advent was hailed with great pleasure by
many of them. We held services nearly every
evening through the week and several on Sun-
day. I counted sixteen tribes at one of the
Sunday services. More than ever we were
convinced of the need of workers for this class
of natives and the almost criminal neglect of
the Church to provide such for them. We
longed to see the great needs here met, but
could do nothing about it ourselves, as our in-

14 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

structions were to proceed at once to the
Lunda country and we knew that our work lay
there.

We were delayed a month at Broken Hill
getting our baggage from Cape Town, repack-
ing, and getting carriers. It is impossible to
mention a hundredth of the cases of marked
Divine providence that attended us during the
following years. But one case of a caravan
which arrived just as I had finished one lot of
packing is still strongly impressed on my mind.
This caravan was returning to Kaleni Hill, ten
miles from Kalalua, where we were to spend
the next rainy season (though we did not know
that then). We did know that they were
bound along the same general route that we
were to take, and thanked God devoutly for
the chance to send seventeen loads right
through.

The month spent here was a valuable one in
many ways. I was thus enabled to reach and
get acquainted with some of the natives work-
ing on railroad construction, many of whom
I was to meet nearly four years later at Kam-
bove, particularly one named Mashona, who
had once been a Christian at Bulawayo, but
during the three years among ungodly sur-
roundings along the railroad, had back-

STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 15

slidden. However, during this time at Broken
Hill, he turned back to God and was one of
the first to welcome our coming to Kambove
and to join our church there and become an
active lay worker.

On June 29, at three o'clock in the afternoon,
we trekked northward out of Broken Hill for
the second time, but this time taking the direct
trade route. At the last moment we had the
first of many disappointments in finding that
we were short of carriers and fourteen loads
must be left behind. I sought out a Jew who
had charge of certain lines of transportation
and arranged with him to send our loads after
us. He assured me that in all probability the
loads would reach Kansanshi a day or so ahead
of ourselves. Vain delusion! Yet to leave
them with him was all I could do under the
circumstances.

Our caravan was among the last to follow
this old trade route. Two reasons led to its
abandonment. In the first place the railroad
had been constructed from Broken Hill some
distance into the Belgian Congo and most of
the passengers went that way. But as the
construction company were charging twenty-
four cents a mile for passengers and enormous
rates for freight we could not pay it. More-

16 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

over, it would still leave us one hundred miles
from Kansanshi, at a point where no carriers
could be obtained except at impossible rates
— and quite off the main paths.

The other reason was that this route was
now attended with no little danger from rob-
bers. A certain white man had trained a small
band of natives to assist him in the life of an
outlaw. The end was that he was murdered
by these same pupils who had learned his les-
sons too well. Knowing their fate if caught,
they had been terrorizing caravans and com-
mitting many robberies, especially in the re-
gion of the Lukanga swamp where they could
be successfully hidden. Ugly rumors were
afloat before we left Broken Hill and our men
were none too cheerful about taking that route.
I have never heard of any other caravan taking
that route after us: it is doubtful if carriers
could have been persuaded to go.

The rumors increased and so did the anxiety
of our men as we went along. For ourselves,
we were less concerned, having long since
learned how little of such scare news can be
believed. Nevertheless when we reached the
Lukanga swamp and were met by the most
villainous looking lot of native ferrymen we
had ever seen, we felt that we would rather

A VILLAINOUS LOOKING LOT OF FERRYMEN
ON THE TRACTION ROAD, KANSANSHI-BAYA

STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 17

deal with a better class of native. But here
we were at the swamp and at the mercy of
these men. So I picked out two of them and
arranged for them to take us and our loads
through the worst of the swamp in their
canoes. These canoes were as unpromising as
their owners. The first one nearly sank at the
start and I had to get into a second one, leav-
ing my wife as the only passenger in the first.
As mine was plastered up with clay all along
the side, I removed shoes and stockings so that
I could wade or swim in case the clay side
caved in. We were nearly an hour going
through the swamp to where we could wade
out on the other side. When all our belongings
were over, ten men came up and demanded a
shilling each for the work. This was five times
the price we should have paid, but under the
circumstances I paid rather than get into a
quarrel at this time.

The next day we came to a village from
which most of the people had fled and those
who remained were about to leave in terror of
their lives. From that on the rumors grew
uglier until there could be no doubt but that
there was actual danger along that route. A
few days later I was at the front of the caravan
and we noticed a lot of vultures a little to the

18 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

left of the path. Two or three of my carriers
stepped aside to see what had called the vul-
tures and to their horror they came upon four
murdered natives. They had evidently camped
at this small stream and had been murdered
during the night and their loads seized. From
that time on our carriers kept close to us by
day and at night slept all around our tent, as
close as it was possible to get, until we reached
our last camping place at the Mission occupied
by the Kev. A. W. Bailey, fourteen miles
south of Kansanshi. This station of the South
Africa General Mission had just been opened.
During our stay at Kansanshi we saw much
of our countryman, Mr. Bailey, whom we
found a man after our heart and a brother
indeed.

On arriving at Kanshanshi, two more disap-
pointments were in store for us. We found
that our loads had not arrived and that we
could get no house in which to stop while wait-
ing for them. Thinking that it would be but
a matter of waiting a week at the most, we
occupied an old abandoned camp of a char-
coal burner, sleeping in our tiny tent by night
and living out of doors by day. It was very
cold and windy so that conditions were ex-
ceedingly disagreeable during the time of our

STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 19

stay, which eventually lengthened into two
whole months.

The mining work had gone ahead during the
three years since our previous visit, and
already a thousand tons of smelted copper
were stacked up awaiting the arrival of the
railway to the nearest point sixty miles east
of there, now called Baya, whence it could be
transported by traction engines. This was
being done the following year when we passed
through Kansanshi for the third and last time.

One notable item regarding the mine was
that much of the smelter had been cast on the
spot. The iron ore required was available
only a few miles away,. and so nearly pure was
it that it needed to go through no preliminary
purifying process.

As Brother Bailey was doing the missionary
work at Kansanshi, I did little among either
whites or natives except by means of personal
work. As we were not allowed to hold any
services in the mine compound, I held them at
a distance from the compound and at our
camp, and many came there to attend. A few
boys joined our school and traveled west with
us when we left.

The most notable feature of our stay here
was the inaugurating of the Fox Bible Train-

20 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

ing School, funds for building the station
of which had been given us by Dr. C. Vernon
Fox and wife of Dakota. We started with
but six pupils, with only the sky for a roof,
logs for benches, and a very limited supply of
books. But primitive as it all was, we began
the next day but one after reaching Kansanshi,
that is, on July 20, 1910, and from that day
this institution has been meeting and will con-
tinue to meet a great need in that section of
the country. It is a well accepted fact that
Africa must be evangelized largely by her own
people. Therefore the best work of the mis-
sionary is not preaching — important though
that may be and much as he loves it — but in
preparing the natives to preach, to teach, and
to lead their own people.

A week passed and still no loads, so I wrote
to ask about them, and when the reply came
it bore the surprising information that the
loads were still at Broken Hill and probably
would remain there indefinitely. There was
but one thing to do and that was to go to rail
head, which was now nearly up to the traction
road, running east from Kansanshi, and have
them sent by rail.

This I did, and as the traction road was
newly cut and not yet much used, I shall never

STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 21

forget the painful experience of doing sixty
miles on a bicycle in one day — my first cycling
for years. I wired for the loads to be sent, and
after some delay they arrived safely, and I re-
turned with them to Kansanshi after two
weeks' absence, during which time Mrs.
Springer had been alone at our camp — alone as
far as white people were concerned. Shortly
after I left for rail head two groups of carriers
arrived for us, one of raw Andembwe who had
never been so far from home before and a
smaller one of Aluena — some thirty in all — for
her to take care of until I returned.

We were now just three months behind the
time we had planned ; this was a serious mat-
ter, as we might now expect the rains any day.
These unexpected and unavoidable delays had
given us no little concern, but we came to feel
that since these delays were in no part what-
ever our fault, in some way or other the Lord
would provide for us and our school during
the rainy season so near at hand.

The day before leaving Kansanshi I had to
call on the District Magistrate, Mr. Hazle, con-
cerning my carriers. In the course of the con-
versation he asked me what was our ultimate
destination. I replied that it was the Lunda
country. He then asked if I had any station

22 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

prepared in which to spend the rainy season.
I told him that I regretted very much to say
that I had not. He then offered us the use of
Kalulua station if it were still standing. The
government had abandoned it some months
before and he did not know if it had been
burned or not. Whereupon we thanked God
and went forward with renewed hope and cour-
age.

We left Kansanshi on September 13, the
hottest time in the year, but though the rains
were already due, we had none until two nights
before we reached our journey's end. Nearly
all of the veld had been burned over and the
very ground under our feet was parched and
cracked. Native food was scarce, but at the
worst juncture I was able to shoot a sable
antelope and thus furnish food for ourselves
and caravan. I had been fortunate in supply-
ing a lot of meat to the caravan on the traction
road, but game was more scarce from this on.

Right here I wish to say that it has been
wonderful to us to see how the Lord has pro-
vided for us at all times. Once we had camped
too late in the evening for me to go out hunt-
ing. The next morning we had to be on the
trail early, but while the others were breaking
camp, I took two men and went down to the

STRIKING THE TRAIL AGAIN 23

water hole to see if I could bag a pig. We
did not see a thing and were returning empty
handed when we saw that something heavy had
been dragged across the path since we came
out. We followed the spoor and found a zebra
which a lion had just killed and was dragging
along. Evidently the lion fled as he heard us
approach, and my men raised a shout which
brought the whole caravan on the run and the
zebra was soon cut up and carried off. That
night we had juicy, tenderloin zebra steaks for
our supper.

At another time I had occasion for thanks-
giving for quite another reason. I had had to
walk along the Kansanshi traction road for
nearly three hours after dark. I was alone
with only my bicycle and did not relish the
walk at all. Returning later over the same
trail by day, I found bits of a zebra skin, all
that was left of the poor beast that had been
killed and eaten by a lion on this same section
of road over which I had passed.

At Mwinilunga we were most cordially and
hospitably received by the Commissioner, Mr.
Bellis, who then and ever afterward showed
himself ready to give us any assistance in his
power. He was engaged in building the new
government station and assured us that the old

24 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

one at Kalulua was still standing and would
provide us excellent shelter during the rains.

Two nights later we slept near the source
of the Zambesi River, and the next night
reached Kaleni Hill, where we were once more
welcomed by Miss Eileen Darling and her asso-
ciate, Miss Hoyt. Here again we met Mr.
Sawyer and Miss Ing, who proudly introduced
to us the youngest member of the Mission, Miss
Betty Sawyer, five days old. Dr. and Mrs.
Fisher were in Ireland at the time.

The next noon, October 1, we reached Kalu-
lua, ten miles north of Kaleni Hill, where two
days later we were joined by Mr. Herman
Heinkel, who was associated with us for the
next three and a half years. We found a set
of commodious buildings admirably adapted
to our needs and, although there were neither
doors nor windows on any of them, we were
very comfortable there for the next seven
months. Our later experience in the building
of two stations has accentuated our apprecia-
tion of this station and our gratitude to God
for providing Kalulua for us at this time.

CHAPTER III
KALULUA TO LUKOSHI

THE very night that Mr. Heinkel joined us,
the rains began in dead earnest with one of the
characteristic thunder showers that seem to
rend heaven and earth. It is a rare thing in
many parts of the center of Africa to have a
whole rainy day: the rain is poured out in
showers, and most of them are terrific.

At Kalulua, as at Broken Hill, the houses
were unfurnished, and we had no furniture
except what we could make and that was little
enough. A small table for the dining room
wras made of our provision boxes; the beds,
chairs, and other furniture were largely made
of sticks and poles tied together with bark
rope. Yet we did not have any reason what-
ever to complain. We were reasonably com-
fortable and happy with the school work,
which for the most part occupied our attention.
Connected with this was the visitation of the
neighboring villages and the work on new text
books suitable for native use.

25

26 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

In the matter of food we were far from satis-
fied. The natives in that vicinity were the
most shiftless we have ever seen. They be-
longed to the class aptly described as "having
nothing and wanting nothing." Neither would
they work, so that we had to draw very lightly
on what European stores we had and live
mostly on sour mush and beans, a diet on
which we truly lived,, but did not thrive.

Not only was it difficult to buy or obtain
food for ourselves, but for our boys as well.
More than once we had to pray earnestly that
the food would come in and in every instance
our faith was rewarded. Mr. Heinkel had
charge of the buying of native food, and after
experience in trying to buy in the villages, he
used to say, "It is of no use sending out to buy
it but the Lord will send it to us," and He
did. But even so, there was very little variety,
and but for the mushrooms our boys would
have fared ill also. In no place that we have
lived in Africa have we seen so many and such
large mushrooms as grow around Kalulua.
We tried to eat them but were unable to do so,
though the natives were very fond of them.

But while the ground at Kalulua raised
enormous mushrooms, it refused to raise any-
thing else. We wasted a lot of seed and labor,

KALULUA TO LUKOSHI 27

as had Mr. Bellis before us, in the effort to
have a garden, but reaped no benefits whatever.

Once during our stay at Kalulua we were
fortunate enough to get seventeen carriers to
go down to the railroad for supplies for us.
Alas ! After nearly three months they returned
with ten loads for others and only seven for us,
and these were so badly packed that there were
really only about three loads of provisions in
all. It was very apparent that if we were to
have inland stations we must have someone at
the railroad who could load caravans properly
when they were sent down.

We had hoped to make some progress in the
language as these people glibly called them-
selves Lunda, but we soon learned that they
were neither Alunda nor spoke the Lunda lan-
guage. As to their origin one theory told us
later is that they were an offshoot of a lot of
Kosa slaves who had been brought by one of
the former Mwata Yamvos to work his great
salt pans to the east of Kambove. They cer-
tainly do not speak a pure Bantu tongue. Dr.
Fisher and other members of the Garanganze
Mission of Plymouth Brethren, however, have
made marked progress in reducing this mixed
language to writing and in starting a Chin-
dembwe literature.

28 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

And now, as the new year came in and the
end of the rains might be expected in three or
four months, we were confronted with the
question of our next move. Our understand-
ing with Bishop Hartzell had been for us to
proceed to the Lunda country and this we had
not yet reached. In no case could we have
considered remaining at Kalulua so near to
Dr. Fisher's work, even had this been in the
Lunda country. But had we been willing so
to do, it was impossible as the buildings at
Kalulua had been sold to a Swedish trader,
Mr. Frykberg, who came to occupy them in the
latter part of April, though he and his wife
urged us most cordially to remain where we
were and share the station with them.

It is hard for the reader to realize how very
difficult it is to get reliable information in
Africa except at first hand, and sometimes
difficult even then. We could get very little
information at Kalulua concerning the Lunda
country, so in March I made a trip to the
nearest important Lunda chief named Ka-
zembe. He was a true Lunda though more
than half his people were not. He expressed
great pleasure at the prospect of having us
come and settle near his village. I then went
to the nearest Belgian post to get the necessary

KALULUA TO LUKOSHI 29

permission to settle in the country. They
could not grant it, but sent me to a second and
superior post, where I was told that I must
get the permission from Elisabethville.

So there seemed nothing for it but to go in
person to this capital of the section of the
Congo known as Katanga. We built a small
hut near a native village four miles from Ka-
lulua and Mr. Heinkel and Jacob remained
there with our goods while Mrs. Springer and
I went to Elisabethville. Mrs. Springer was
taken very ill just before leaving, but Dr.
Fisher had just returned to his station and
he kindly came over and attended her and she
was seemingly quite well when we started.

And right here I wish to record our grati-
tude and appreciation of all the help and kind-
ness shown us by these our fellow workers, by
Miss Darling, who had charge of the station
during her uncle's absence, and by Dr. and
Mrs. Fisher after their return during the next
three years.

The one marked incident of our three weeks'
journey down was a relapse of Mrs. Springer's.
She became so very ill that we had to stop one
noon near a small stream of water but with no
villages for two days ahead, and none near nor
behind us. The situation was most serious.

30 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

We could not remain there long and it looked
as if it would be fatal to her to go on. But
while lying there on the floor of the tent there
came to her a message as though spoken in an
audible voice, "Go on in the strength of the
Lord."

Our carriers on this trip were of very raw
caliber and they were the most troublesome
crowd that we ever had. Many of them were
going down light to bring back loads, and thus
a larger number than usual were available for
carrying Mrs. Springer, but the more there
were the more quarreling there was to see who
could keep from carrying at all. Evidently
each wished to go along free "like a gentle-
man" and be paid at the same time. I was
riding a crippled bicycle, which I could not
pedal, but by having a boy push with a long
stick from behind and coasting down the hills,
I was relieved of a certain amount of walking.
But on the traction road, beyond Kansanshi,
it was so billowy, as a result of the heavy
traffic, that the strain broke the fork of my
wheel and I had to walk.

The puffing of the traction engines along
this road, in taking out the thousand tons of
copper, had driven the deer and other wild
animals away, so that where the year before

KALTJLUA TO LUKOSHI 31

I had shot several heads of game right from
the path, we now saw none from one end of
the road to the other.

The change at Elisabethville was indeed
marvelous. Only nine months before I had
seen them beginning to fell the trees for the
streets. Now we came into a town with twenty
miles of well laid-out streets with a population
of more than one thousand Europeans, living
for the most part, at this stage, in mud huts,
wood and iron houses, and many under buck-
sails (water-proof canvas). From being a
wilderness ten months before Elisabethville
had leaped in one year to the distinction of
being the largest settlement of Europeans in
the entire Belgian Congo.

A large number of brick yards were in full
operation to supply material for the many
excellent buildings, public, private, and com-
mercial, which were under construction.
Along the brow of the hill, overlooking the
Lubumbashi River, had been laid out a wide
boulevard along which some of the finest resi-
dences were being built. All these activities
were being pushed at top speed to build this
capital town of the Katanga, which is the
southeastern province of the Belgian Congo,
including all south of 5° south parallel, and

32 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

east of the Kasai Kiver. A very comfortable
town is the result, one that would do credit
to European countries. This was completed
at an enormous expense because of the speed
with which it was accomplished and because
of the large demands for native workmen,
making wages very high. Portland cement
was used largely in construction, the cost be-
ing between six dollars and ten dollars per
hundred pounds.

We pitched our own camp a little outside
of the town for two reasons, one being that it
was much cheaper than stopping at hotels, and
the other so as to be near our carriers in order
to prevent their being stolen by some contract-
or in search of laborers, a very common prac-
tice throughout the country at this time.

We were most cordially welcomed by Vice-
Governor General E. Wangermee. He later
invited us to tea at the residency to meet the
heads of the various departments of the gov-
ernment. The Governor expressed his pleasure
in welcoming us as representatives of an
American Missionary Society. He said that
in Katanga there were now both British
Protestant and Continental, particularly Bel-
gian, Catholic societies. He had asked the
Roman Catholic authorities at home to send

KALULUA TO LUKOSHI 33

out to the Katanga the Catholic society actu-
ated by the broadest sympathies, namely, the
Benedictines, and it was his wish that, while
each of the societies should pursue the work
in its own way, all should work in harmony.

The Belgian government is most kindly in
its attitude toward the natives. It is generally
recognized, both by the officials and the public
in general, that now the government errs on
the side of too great leniency and that in courts
and elsewhere the natives are given a point
of vantage against the white man, to the detri-
ment of both. They are seeking to correct this
tendency and to take a medium attitude.

With the death of Leopold, a radical change
had taken place in the administration of the
Congo. It is not generally recognized that the
Belgian nation, as a nation, was in no sense
responsible for the former atrocities. King
Leopold, as independent sovereign of the
Congo Free State, and the group immediately
under him, many of whom were of other Euro-
pean nationalities, were alone responsible for
that terrible regime. For the credit of the
Belgian nation, it must be said that during the
years of his misrule there was no greater oppo-
sition to King Leopold and his methods any-
where than in his own parliament

34 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

The present King Albert is a man of an al-
together different stamp from his predecessor.
In 1907, as Prince, he made a journey across
the Belgian Congo in spite of the opposition
of his uncle and others. In coming up from
Cape Town and through Ehodesia and passing
through this very region where Elisabethville
was now being built, he showed himself to be
of a most democratic spirit, and frankly con-
fessing the inexperience of Belgium in colonial
matters, sought advice in regard to the admin-
istration of natives from every possible source.

On the evening of June 22 we attended the
concert in celebration of the coronation of
King George, the British and Belgians uniting
in the celebration as they were united in the
club and in other activities. Governor Wan-
germee told us later of his desire that the Bel-
gians should acquire the habits of the British
and Americans in the matter of recreation and
sociability, as shown in sports and clubs, thus
securing among themselves greater unity and
effectiveness.

Happily our visit to Elisabethville coincided
with the visit of Kobert Williams, that astute
financier, in many respects a successor to Cecil
Rhodes, but still following distinct lines of his
own. In the late 90's he had sent his prospec-

KALULUA TO LUKOSHI 35

tors a thousand miles ahead of the railroad,
and in 1900 discovered the copper field put on
the map of Africa by Livingstone in 1857. By
marvelous genius he had interested millions of
capital in prospecting and then in building
one hundred and twenty miles of the Cape-to-
Cairo Railroad from Broken Hill to the Bel-
gian border, from which point a Belgian com-
pany had pushed it forward to the Star of the
Congo Mine and to the site where the smelting
plant of that southern group of mines of the
copper belt was being built on the Lubumbashi
River. Mr. Williams was on his first personal
visit to these mines and witnessed the begin-
ning of the smelting operations. As that
molten stream of copper began to flow, he
remarked, "This is the beginning of the stream
that is to completely revolutionize Central
Africa." He was most optimistic over the
development of the mining operations and
looked forward eagerly to the completion of
the Benguela Railroad direct from the West
Coast to these mines, now completed over one
third of the distance.

He knew of me, having read my book, The
Heart of Central Africa, and was interested
and pleased that we were beginning mission
work in the country and promised cordial co-

36 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

operation in our propaganda. Mr. Williams
made a trip by caravan or "Safari" to Kam-
bove and other copper deposits.

Elisabethville being the rail head, was the
commercial center for all the region hundreds
of miles north. Messrs. Ullman & Co.
were perhaps the strongest group of traders
and frequently had caravans of from three to
six hundred natives bringing in ivory and
rubber from the north. As these raw Baluba
marched down the street to the station, to the
strains of music from their native instruments,
they presented a picturesque sight and created
great interest in the town.

The extension of the railroad to Kambove
was just beginning, and thousands of natives,
recruited from practically all of the tribes in
every direction for hundreds of miles, were
concentrated here for work on the mines and
on railroad construction. Many of them recog-
nized me from our meetings at Broken Hill
and begged me to stay and open a school and
church. It was a strong, attractive appeal
and my heart bled for them and for the King-
dom, as no one would be there for the follow-
ing three years to shepherd them. But the
Divine leadings for us were again to go to the
wilderness and the Lunda Land, which also

KALULUA TO LUKOSHI 37

sorely needed us, and thither we turned our
faces after this brief and fresh touch with
civilization.

From the well-provisioned shops we were
able to secure all our needed provisions, and
we loaded up some sixty carriers, twenty-five
of whom wre had brought with us and thirty-
five of whom followed us under the leadership
of our old boy, Jim, who has a particular talent
for commanding others.

The trip out from Elisabethville was with-
out particular incident except for the deser-
tion of some ten carriers in all, but on some
of these occasions other natives traveling
empty handed came along and helped us on
our way. On several occasions I had to draw
on Mrs. Springer's machilla carriers, thus
making it necessary for her to walk a large
part of the day, which was very trying on her.
The new sprocket wheel on my bicycle soon
went wrong and I had a wheel that was free
both ways and which frequently needed to be
beaten before it would catch again. For days
we passed along a country rich in deposits of
iron of excellent purity.

After twenty-six days of tedious marching
we reached the village of Kazembe on the
Lukoshi Kiver where we were to build.

CHAPTEE IV
BUILDING AT LUKOSHI

THE one word that is preeminently before
our minds whenever the name of Kazembe or
the station of Lukoshi is mentioned is the
one so often used by the natives to describe
their own strongest feelings — "hunger."

The day before we arrived, we walked a
weary twenty miles and then found that the
village where we had hoped to find food was
abandoned, and our carriers had to go to bed
hungry and start out hungry the next day. I
encouraged them by the assurance that we
would reach Kazembe's in the afternoon and
that then there would be enough to fill their
empty stomachs. I noticed that they did not
seem very enthusiastic over the prospect as I
naturally thought they would be, but I had to
learn from months of sad experience what my
carriers, whose homes were less than 100 miles
away, knew already — that food was always
scarce around Kazembe's.

We walked into Kazembe's village about

38

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 39

three o'clock on July 26, 1911, hot, dirty,
dusty, and very weary. The chief came out
and gave us a hearty welcome and so did his
people and we were exceedingly thankful to be
at the end of our toilsome trip covering two
months. We hastily picked out a site to camp
under a clump of trees not far from the village
and then expected that the chief would appear
with the customary present of meal and fowls.
I told him that my men were hungry and that
I wanted to buy food for them, but beyond a
few sweet potatoes, no food came.

The next day the chief brought me a small
present of meal and two small fowls, and
explained that his was a new village and the
people all had their gardens some distance
away so he could only bring a small present
at that time. He said that he had sent out
word far and near for his people to come and
bring food, so that in a day or two there would
be much ; all of wThich I believed.

Not so my carriers. I had engaged most of
them to stay and work for me a month and
thus help build the station. Several of them
were to work two or three months. But with
the exception of four they all absolutely re-
fused to stay, saying that if they did they
w^ould starve to death. In vain I quoted Ka-

40 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

zembe's assurances, but they knew the facts
of the case and taking their pay, cleared out
as fast as their legs could carry them.

Then we began looking for a site for the
Mission. Kazembe was emphatic in wishing
us to build close to his village. But it was
evident that he had built too near the river,
in a most unhealthy location. So we chose the
best site in all that locality, which was on the
other side of the Lukoshi River nearly a mile
away. The next rainy season proved the wis-
dom of our choice, for the river rose to the very
edge of his village and flooded the lowlands
all around, so that Kazembe himself had to
move to higher and dryer ground.

I had first visited Kazembe on the 25th of
March. The chief and his people had expressed
themselves as very keen to have us come and
live among them. I told the chief then that
there would be obligations on the part of him
and of his people if we did come. I explained
that it would be necessary for them to sell me
food and to furnish me carriers for the neces-
sary transport connected with a mission sta-
tion, for all of which there would be adequate
compensation. They agreed readily and prom-
ised all most heartily.

I now told Kazembe that I must have some

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 41

carriers to go the seventy miles to Kalulua for
loads; lie said I should have them. Neverthe-
less, they did not appear and in the end I
had to go out and recruit the men myself, and
it was with considerable difficulty that I finally
got our loads from even that short distance.
I was to learn that in the matter of carriers
the chief had really little or no power at all.

The next day, August 1, we cut the first trees
and proceeded to put up a rude shelter
from the midday sun, particularly for Mrs.
Springer. Mr. Heinkel and I were necessarily
employed in the open all day long. In fact, an
event occurred a month later which made it
necessary for one of us to go out to the villages
miles away to buy food to keep our boys from
starving.

I told Kazembe that I must have men to help
build the station. He said he would bring
some the next day. So about ten o'clock, Ka-
zembe and ten men arrived and began to cut
down the trees about three feet from the
ground. I told him that I did not want all
the trees cut indiscriminately, but that I did
want those which were cut to be cut properly.
Bo they worked a couple of hours and then
said it was time to quit and go home. The
next day I said that we would give them their

42 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

lunch so that they could work longer, but the
chief said he never ate in public like common
people, and the only way that he would eat at
all was behind some bushes shielded by an um-
brella. Even though he and his men ate lunch,
they soon stopped work and went back to the
village and we saw that that plan would not
work. I told Kazembe to tell his men to come
early in the morning and for each to bring a
good pole for building along with him.

But all our efforts to get any real labor out
of the men of the village were in vain. They
could not be persuaded to do more than two
or three hours' work in a day, and after three
days they intimated that a present would be
very acceptable. In fact, they expected more
than the customary wages for a full day's work
for the small amount they had been doing.
They were not satisfied with their "present"
and Kazembe found that official business re-
quired his attention in his village.

Then I went out into the villages and at last
hired ten men to come and work for a month.
They had worked a week when Kazembe and
several of his followers passed through our
grounds one morning stating that he had to
"sit" on a case in one of the villages about nine
miles away ; a case in which he was personally

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 43

interested. The chief is the judge in this coun-
try, so in this case — as is not infrequent —
Kazembe was both judge and defendant. He
asked me for a present of a certain kind of
cloth. I did not have what he wanted, but
he finally saw a red bandana handkerchief
and wanted that. He took it, snatched the hat
from off the head of one of my boys, put the
red handkerchief around the hat and went
away laughing, as we thought because he con-
sidered his getting the hat as a good joke. We
learned later that the wearing of the red was
his way of declaring war, for before the day
was done he had shot down his enemy and
that whole section of country was in a state
of war. As one of our ten workmen was a
son of the murdered man, and the others were
relatives or subjects, they were horror stricken
and overwhelmed with grief at the dastardly
deed and went back to mourn and to fight, if
need be. So again, we were left with no work-
men except our own small force.

The very first day that we moved to our
mission site, while yet everything was in con-
fusion, Sanyangala brought a native visitor
to me saying that he was a Lunda proper and
spoke the Luunda. So we immediately sat
down on a fallen log and worked out a trans-

44 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

lation of a Chindembwe hymn into the Luunda,
sung to the tune of the 'Sweet By and By. It
was the first hymn ever translated or written
in the Lunda language and has always been
very popular.

Linguistically, Kazembe's village was a sort
of half-way station between the Lunda and
Chindembwe languages, for which the Congo-
Zambesi Divide was the boundary line, just as
it is between Northern Rhodesia and the Bel-
gian Congo. In the northwestern section of
Northern Rhodesia the language is Chin-
dembwe, though it has been considered as
Lunda by many Europeans and is loosely so
called by the people themselves.

The confusion in the name of the language
has arisen evidently from the fact that the
once powerful Lunda chief, Mwata Yamvo,
conquered the Andembwe and incorporated
them into the Lunda Empire and they were
called Lunda.

Very probably the conquering warriors re-
mained in the land and took the Andembwe
women as their wives. But in all lands the
speech of the mothers becomes the speech of
the children and so, in this case, it is the Chin-
dembwe, and not the Lunda, which has been
perpetuated.

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 45

At Lukoshi, as in many other villages of the
Belgian Congo just within the border, the men
were mostly Alunda and these spoke and un-
derstood the Lunda language. But their wives
were largely Andembwe and the common
speech was rapidly becoming Chindembwe.
Many of the children were quite unable to
understand their fathers' language, though
they held the Luunda in high esteem and
admiration and considered it a marked accom-
plishment to be able to speak it.

The European governments have greatly
modified the nature and extent of native rule.
So while the Andembwe in Rhodesia still say
that Mwata Yamvo is their chief, they no
longer pay him any tribute or give him any
service nor have any vital connection with
him whatever. There is a stronger bond be-
tween the Andembwe subjects in the Congo,
but they are so far away and have so little to
fear from failure to obey his commands, that
they, too, fail to meet* any of the demands of
their paramount chief. Kazembe, although
ruling chief of this Lukoshi province of the
Lunda kingdom, for several years now had
failed so far to send a present or tribute to
Mwata Yamvo, which tribute was formerly re-
quired annually.

46 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

At Kalulua, since we did not come in con-
tact with any natives speaking the Lunda lan-
guage, we were not able to do any language
work. Here we found the Luunda quite
generally understood and spoken by the older
people, so we were able to enter with vigor at
once into the reduction of this language to
writing.

The building of a mission station means
more than the putting up of poles and plaster
and getting roofs over heads. It means estab-
lishing and advancing every phase of mission
work.

Two days after our arrival at Lukoshi, a
very surprising and important incident oc-
curred which meant much to our new mission
and to one of our boys. The reader will
perhaps remember the two boys, Kitchen and
Songoro, of whom I told in The Heart of Cen-
tral Africa. These two boys went across with
us to Angola, where they remained in school
for nearly three years. At the end of that
period, we had them sent by boat to Cape
Town, as it was not safe at that time to send
them back alone across country by trail. As
we mentioned previously, we met them in Cape
Town and took them along with us.

The youngest of the four boys was Songoro,

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 47

a lad of stormy temperament, who was most
devoted at times and at others sullen and very
trying to handle. During our year at Kan-
sanshi and Kalulua, Songoro was a veritable
thorn in the flesh. Most of the time found him
in a darkly sullen mood, obstinate as a donkey.
He protested against staying any longer in
school and his one cry was, "I want to return
to my own people. I have not seen them for
many years."

I finally told him that when we went to
Elisabethville, I would take him along and
then he could go on another three hundred
miles and visit his own people. When we got
there, he said that he would not go home
empty handed, but wished to work and earn
money so that he could take plenty of presents
with him. I told him that he was free to do
as he wished, and that if he ever desired to
return to the school he would be welcome. He
sullenly declared that he never intended to
come to school again — never.

So we had to leave him. We knew that much
of his restlessness was due to his age and hoped
that when the period of adolescence was passed
he might repent and return. Musondo,
"Kitchen," did not wish to leave the school,
but said that he felt that he must stay with his

48 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

brother Songoro. Therefore we left the two
of them.

It was now the third day of our camp at
Lukoshi, and just after lunch I asked Mrs.
Springer if she wished to go down with me to
the river' where it would be necessary to put
a second bridge, and where now there was a
tree felled across on which it was possible for
the natives to cross, although it was under
water and very slippery and dangerous.

As we came through the thick jungle to the
river bank, the boys who were with us ex-
claimed in one breath, "Songoro!" I looked,
and there on the other side was Songoro in-
deed. He hastily let himself down the steep
bank and began to dip up the water in his hand
to slake his thirst. He was hot, dusty, and
very tired, and so overcome with emotion that
he could hardly speak. Later on in the cool of
the day when he had eaten and rested he told
me his story.

He said that after we left Elisabethville he
got work as a table waiter in a good family
and thought he would be happy. But one night
there came to him, as of an audible voice, the
question, "Songoro, what is this you want?
You want money. When you get the money
and buv a box and fill it full of clothes and

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 49

blankets and everything you want, what then?
What will all these things profit you if you
lose your own soul thereby? Your place is
with your teacher in the Mission school, not
here."

He could not get away from this thought.
He felt that if he stayed in Elisabethville he
would lose his soul, and he suddenly discovered
that that was the one thing that he wanted
most to save. He went up to Musondo and
said, "Musondo, I want to go back to Mr.
Springer." Musondo, who had left on Son-
goro's account, was in no mood to listen now
to his sudden resolve to return.

"Give me my money," said Songoro, for he
had asked Musondo to keep some of his wages
which I had paid him. Musondo refused.

"Give me my blankets," he demanded. Still
Musondo refused.

Waiting until Musondo was busy on some
errand for his new Belgian master, Songoro
found his blankets hidden in the master's bed-
room and, taking them, left the house, setting
his face toward the west. He could not follow
us, as we had taken a route unknown to him,
a path entirely within the Belgian Congo, so
he started back by the way he had come.

At the traction road he asked a white man

50 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

for work on one of the engines, telling him
who he was and where he was going.

"All right, I will let you work on my engine
to Kansanshi. I know Mr. Springer, for I am
an American too," said he. So this man from
Port Huron gave the boy work during the five
or six days' journey to Kansanshi, and then
gave him ten shillings to buy food the rest of
the way ; a truly generous act.

At Kansanshi Songoro joined the post
boys, but before very long his money was gone.
What should he do? He asked his Heavenly
Father to feed him. The next day as he was
going along he smelled meat and leaving the
path soon found a dead animal that Dr. Fisher
had shot a few days before, but had not been
able to find. He cut up the animal and carried
away all the meat he could stagger under, and
was able to exchange this in the villages for
meal, and thus he was provided with food until
he reached Mr. Heinkel, near Kalulua, when
he was all right again.

There was no doubt in our minds as to Son-
goro's conversion. He was a new boy indeed.
He would always be impulsive, but he became
a true follower of the Master. When he was
baptized we gave him the name of Peter, which
character he so much resembled.

BUILDING AT LUKOSHI 51

This story would be incomplete without an-
other reference to Musondo. He stayed in
Elisabethville and lost his soul. We have
never seen him since. But we have reports of
him that show that he fell before the tempta-
tions of that wicked town.

CHAPTER V

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS AND
ITINERATING

FOR the first week, we looked with hopeful
hearts for the meal which Kazembe said he had
sent for and which he daily expected to arrive.
It never came and we have a strong suspicion
that when meal did come in from his villages
Kazembe kept it for his own use. We had not
been there long before we learned that food
was indeed scarce.

Food we must have for our own boys and for
the four extra workmen who had stayed with
us. It is customary to ration the natives two
pounds of meal a day, with beans or something
as a relish to eat with the mush that is cooked
therefrom. So while we had a small force of
about a dozen boys, twenty-four pounds of
meal a day soon made a big hole in a bag.

All our buying here, as elsewhere in the
interior, has to be done by barter and no one
who has not had experience can believe how
much trouble this is. In the first place styles

52

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 53

change among the natives as they do in the
home lands. It may be all the rage to wear
white calico or white beads one year and the
next they cannot be given away. And we suf-
fered much during our first few months at
Lukoshi because we did not have the latest
styles in beads and cloth. This is particularly
interesting when the calico was not worn for
warmth and, as far as we could see, scarcely
any of it was on show. Most of it seemed to
be used to pay up debts, fines, etc. But what-
ever use the natives made of it, our trade cloth
did not suit them and they would not bring
food to buy it.

So after Mr. Heinkel finally reached Lukoshi
with the last of our loads, I decided to take
some of our boys and go out into the surround-
ing villages and buy food, thus getting ac-
quainted with the people and the country at
the same time. I had to go at least ten miles
to find any quantity of food, which meant that
I had to stay over night in every case. We
were too short of boys for me to take along a
tent and it is not safe to sleep in native houses
as they are infested with a species of tick
called a tanpan. The bite of this tanpan
causes a low and obstinate type of fever which
is far more serious than malaria. So I slept

54 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

out in the open, usually under the native
granaries where I was exposed to the malarial
infected mosquito, not to mention other physi-
cal discomforts. I succeeded in getting a little
meal.

We had brought one goat with us, Nannie,
who had trotted along the trail with the cara-
van for two weeks. Then one day Kazembe
came over and presented us with a young Billy.
As we wTere accepting his present, we heard a
snort and there stood Nan on the top of an
anthill looking down with wrath in her eyes.
No sooner was the unfortunate little beast tied
to a tree than she set upon him. Fearing that
she would kill him were he left tied, we let him
loose and for about three days the two fought
as only goats can fight. Billy's horns bled and
he must have had the headache many a time,
but he had plenty of grit and finally Nan ac-
cepted him as a friend and comrade. Which
was quite otherwise with the sheep.

One day Kanuka brought a half-starved
sheep to us to sell. He said it was so poor
because they had had to keep it in for fear
gome of their enemies would steal it. Under
any other circumstances than the ones we were
in, I should never have dreamed of buying it.
But he assured me that it would soon begin

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 55

to fatten on the new grass which was coming
on and so I bought it.

But that sheep was the biggest fool I have
ever seen. It would not stay near the goats
and it was an hour's job every night to get it
into the goat house for the necessary safety.
We had that sheep for more than a month but
never succeeded in teaching it anything.
Neither did it fatten. Also it took to wander-
ing off by itself.

One day about five o'clock, Mr. Heinkel said
to one of the pickaninnies, "You go now and
bring in the sheep." He started rather unwill-
ingly, though he was the best of them all at
getting hold of its long rope and bringing it in.
Soon the other boys who were thatching on the
roof said that the boy had called for help. As it
was quite a common thing to need two or some-
times three to get that sheep home, another
boy was detailed to help him.

Then there came another yell and the boys
said that there was a leopard, so a dash was
made toward the river, taking our guns along.
We found the two boys in trees, but no sign
of the leopard and not much left of the sheep.
Financially, that sheep was a dead loss : but
as a valuable illustration, we never had a bet-
ter one. The most willful boy could not refrain

56 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

a grin when that fool sheep was brought to his
mind. We never regretted the money, though
it was hard to lose it at the time.

On August 29 came the shooting of Nya-
hamba by Kazembe to which I have already re-
ferred. The incidents and causes of the shoot-
ing dated back a few years to a time when one
of Nyahamba's wives ran away from him and
appealed to Kazembe. She stated her grievance
and Kazembe told her to remain in his village
and he would settle the matter with Nya-
hamba.

When Nyahamba came to get his wife, a
lengthy palaver followed and in the end Ka-
zembe demanded of Nyahamba a fine of two
guns and two slaves to be paid over in order
to get his wife back. The price was exorbitant
in the extreme, but it was the only way that
Nyahamba could get possession of his truant
wife and so he paid it. But, as Uncle Eemus
says of Brer Kabbit, he laid low. Nyahamba
was a Chokwe and the Chokwe were not used
of late years to taking orders from the Lunda,
but since they were in the minority in this
section they thought it wise to submit for the
time being.

Now it came to pass that about the time we
arrived at Lukoshi, one of Kazemba's young

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 57

men was strolling along the path to a village
beyond Nyahamba's with a rooster under his
arm, probably for barter. On the way he
passed through some gardens belonging to
Nyahamba's wives and being hungry he did a
very unusual thing : he dug up a small cassava
root and began to eat it as he went along. The
root was not worth more than half a cent and
the lad went on merrily without a shadow of
concern.

But here was the chance that Nyahamba
wanted to start a quarrel, and he demanded
the rooster in payment of the cassava root,
since it had been stolen, not bought. Of course
the youth roundly refused to pay a hundred
times as much as the root was worth, but Nya-
hamba insisted.

Finally seeing that there might be serious
consequences, the youth said, "All right, here
is the cock and the matter is settled.7'

"Not so," said Nyahamba. "If you had paid
in the first place, it would have been, but you
have waited so long and given so much cheek
that now you must pay four pieces of calico of
eight yards each." The native word for one of
these pieces is a chilala.

Then the matter had to go to Kazembe and
nearly a month was spent in sitting on the

58 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

case. In matters of this kind, the native will
not be hurried. He loves to indulge in long
oratorical and dramatic speeches. And in this
case, no sooner did Kazembe agree to settle the
case at one figure, than Nyahamba put up his
price until at length he had made a demand
for three guns and two slaves. The reader will
note now that he was getting back what he
had had to pay, with interest. And from this
figure he absolutely refused to budge.

So when Kazembe found that he must pay
this sum in order to settle the matter at all
amicably, he took his men and went out to the
village nearest Nyahamba's where again there
was a palaver. At last Nyahamba got up in
disgust to leave for his own village, when
Kazembe's men, in accordance with previous
orders, fired a cowardly shot into his back, and
he fell dead.

Then Nyahamba's people demanded the life
of the man who shot him and the whole coun-
try was up in arms for nearly a month or more
until at last the remnants of Nyahamba's small
village moved away. But for a year or more
Kazembe's people were afraid that Nyaham-
ba's brother would return and avenge his
death. And he may do this even after ten or
twenty years.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 59

I have gone into the details of this case as
it is such a typical one of that section of coun-
try.

The following Sunday after we had had our
service in his village, every man with his gun
in his hand to prevent surprise, Kazembe
launched into a long and heated defense of his
action, stating that he had acted judicially
"after the manner of their custom since they
left the capital of Mwata Yamvo." This made
our food question worse than ever, since we
had been getting our meal from these Chokwe
villages some ten miles to the north, and now
we were shut off from them.

From the time of our arrival we had heard
of the great quantities of food at Ifunda,
thirty-five miles to the southwest. So Mrs.
Springer and I decided to make an evangelistic
trip there and buy meal at the same time.

Since we could get no carriers, Mrs.
Springer had to walk, and as she developed a
very sore toe from a jigger under the nail, when
at the farthest point away from home, she had
a hard time walking back, and it took a whole
month after her return for the toe to heal.

We found several large villages among
which was one whose chief was called Mpumba.
He was a true Lunda and the Luunda was the

60 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

common speech of his people. We very much
enjoyed a night's stay at his large village. We
bought several bags of meal there, and all day
and late into the evening there was a crowd
around our tent all keen to give us Luunda
words, hear what we had to say, learn our one
or two hymns in Luunda, and in every way
show us all courtesy and friendliness. We
went away with the mental picture of swarms
of little children who might be won to God,
the songs of women pounding their meal, men
weaving baskets and making fish nets, and of
the merry little stream through which we
gladly waded on that hot September day be-
fore we could reach the village. We had sel-
dom seen a village which so attracted us as
this one, with its kindly-faced chief and the
gladsome ring of childish laughter throughout
the place. It is such scenes as this which make
the passing traveler feel that the heathen are
always happy and laughing and glad, and that
they do not need the gospel. There is quite
another side which we saw at this same village
just a year later — quite another side, indeed.

On this trip, we came across a group of
women at one of the rivers. They were gather-
ing large quantities of a certain weed, which
they were burning to get salt from the ashes.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 61

Salt is very scarce in this section of the coun-
try, but even when they can buy salt easily,
the natives like that which comes from these
weeds, as it combines other chemicals as well.
This weed grew in the marshy land along the
river. There is a weed in the rivers, not unlike
seaweed in appearance, which they also gather,
dry, and burn for the salt.

While we were wonderfully pleased with our
visit to Mpumba, we were equally disappointed
in our visit to Katarurnba, who proved to be
a Chokwe chief with a great many Luena peo-
ple in his large village. He had just moved
to a new site and so his people had very little
food at hand to sell. We had passed his old
village and noticed that it had beeji heavily
stockaded. Katarumba was an old slaver and
took no chances on a surprise from his foe.
He was on the very border of the Portuguese
territory and had done a flourishing business
in slaves and rubber. He was drunk the day
we got there, and from his appearance, I
should judge that that was a chronic condition
of many years' standing. He looked to be and
undoubtedly was an old villain.

This section of country is called Ifunda. It
derives its name from the prevalence of a cer-
tain kind of jungle thicket so dense as to be

62 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

impassable unless a path is cut through. This
kind of country is wonderfully adapted to the
raising of cassava and to guerilla warfare. It
suits the slave-raiding and outlaw chiefs and
their people to a nicety. But as one travels
through that dense forest, it does not take a
very vivid imagination to feel that every mile
is marked with tragedy, murder, and pillage.
It is a dark jungle for dark men of dark deeds.

I should have liked to remain on the station
and expedite the work there, for the rains were
already due and our house was building very
slowly. But the need for carriers and for food
necessitated my making another trip, this time
into Angola, in Portuguese territory.

Kazembe gave me Chidiani, whom he called
his nephew, but who we learned a year later
was only his slave, to go with me to tell the
men in the villages to go and carry for me.
Chidiani declared that he was equal to any-
thing and started out with a great show of
pomp and power. When we came to a village,
we would sit down, and after the preliminaries
were over I would call on Chidiani to give the
chief's message. With much oratory he would
then tell the men assembled that the chief said
that they were to furnish me carriers. Then the
local head men would begin to tell of the work

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 63

that each and every man in the village had on
hand and at the end Chidinai would give me
a hopeless look and say, "You see how it is.
There is no hope here: we must go on to the
next town." The ultimate result was that we
got no carriers. Chidiani as a recruiting agent
was worse than useless.

One reason for the failure to get carriers at
this time was that there were several circum-
cision camps in progress along this route.

Among the Alunda, as among many, if not
most other Bantu tribes, there is a very rigid
custom of circumcision. Until after this cere-
mony, the boys are not allowed to eat with
their elders nor enjoy many other associations
which markedly belong to adults. After this
ceremony they are considered full-fledged
adults and permitted to take their places at
the counsels and other notable occasions of
village life.

Once a year all the boys between twelve and
fourteen years of age are gathered approxi-
mately a mile or so from the village — far
enough to ensure seclusion and near enough
to facilitate feeding them — and are kept in
these camps about a month. During this time
they have a course of lectures by their elders
and some of the instruction is very good, deal-

64 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

ing as it does with the responsibilities they
will have as members of the tribe and family.
There are other features which are less bene-
ficial and some that are exceedingly perni-
cious. We find that many of the boys are
quite willing and even prefer to have this rite
done by a Christian physician, and certainly
this is far better for the boy.

On my stumbling on a circumcision camp
one evening, the boys fled precipitately and I
was asked by the older men who were in charge
to retire, as visitors were not allowed. Women
also are rigidly excluded from these camps
until after the camp is broken up, when the
whole village celebrates with an all night's
dance.

On this trip I decided to press on south
across the national boundary between the
Congo and Angola, formed by the Congo-
Zambesi watershed. Eight in the northeast
corner about ten miles from both the Congo
and Khodesian borders was a little trading
post called Mbumba. Two years previously
there had been some fourteen stores in this
place and I thought that possibly I might be
able to buy some trading goods there. But I
now found only two traders left and they were
doing very little business.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 65

A few years previously there had been an
area of perhaps about one hundred and fifty
miles square, including the three corners of
Northern Rhodesia, Angola, and the Belgian
Congo, which was, to all intents and purposes,
no-man's land. There was rubber in this sec-
tion, though most of it was found in the Congo
section. However, the natives from Angola
and Ehodesia went up there and gathered their
rubber and then went over to the Portuguese
and sold it. The natives told me that they
had until recently found there a market for
slaves as well, and that seems to be pretty well
authenticated.

But in 1907, Major Boyd Cunningham on
behalf of the Tanganyika Concessions Limited,
a prospecting company for minerals, had
opened up a transport route twelve hundred
miles in length between Benguella on the west
coast and Ruwi on the Lualaba River, and
had brought in several ox-wagon loads of
goods, machinery, and supplies from the west
coast following approximately the old slave
trail most of the way. The Britishers had
made it hot for any Portuguese caught with
slave caravans and put a greater damper on
that nefarious business.

But in 1909-1910 there was a tremendous

66 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

boom in rubber, and although it was illegal to
export rubber from either Khodesia or the
Congo without paying export duty, neither of
these sections had come under the control of
their respective governments, and the natives
poured in a stream into Mbumba and the
Portuguese traders there flourished.

But there had come officials into this corner
and a slump in rubber into the outside world
so that by this time, 1911, the rubber trade was
very low indeed, and the two Portuguese trad-
ers left at Mbumba scarcely made a living, if
they did that.

This no-man's land has not to this day been
thoroughly administered by the three govern-
ments concerned, least of all by the Portu-
guese, and the process will be necessarily a
slow one though we are glad to report progress.

At first, the natives were determined not to
be under the control of Europeans. They pre-
ferred their accustomed methods of living, pre-
carious as they were. So when the British
official tried to register his people, they
skipped over the border into the Congo.

Pretty soon the Belgian official came along
and as soon as they got wind of his coining,
back they scooted into Khodesia. Then when
these two governments began to cooperate and

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 67

the nets were more tightly drawn around the
natives, they decided that Angola was the land
of freedom and moved over there.

This suited the Angola natives to a nicety.
When any of them had a debt to pay with
slaves, they simply raided the villages of the
new-comers and took some of these people,
either holding them to be ransomed at an enor-
mous price or selling them outright.

So there has steadily grown the idea that
it is better to live in Ehodesia and enjoy a
measure of security and pay a tax of ten shil-
lings a year than to live in Angola and never
know what is going to happen next.

We found that Kazembe and his people had
never paid any taxes and they were very appre-
hensive of the day when they would have to
do so. They were casting about for some
method whereby they could enjoy the protec-
tion of the Belgians without paying their
taxes.

What a wild and woolly country this no-
man's land was as it unfolded itself before
our eyes and to our better understanding !

CHAPTER VI
FLOODS AND FEVER

THE first shower struck Lukoshi on the 29th
of September, and although we had pushed
our building operations as rapidly as our
crippled condition would allow, we were still
in tents and unprepared for the rainy season.

Mrs. Springer and Mr. Heinkel were on the
station on that date and I had gone to a group
of villages to the north to get more meal. I
had slept on the ground that night under a
granary and fortunately for me, being ten
miles away, we got only the tail end of the
shower.

When I reached home the next afternoon, I
found my wife sitting amidst dire confusion
on our veranda among boxes and chairs. It
was not exactly an ideal picture of "Home,
Sweet Home," but we both were thankful that
at least the roof was on and that it was fairly
water-tight. And I was glad to undress and
get into a bed that evening even though it was
made on a pile of grass in the corner of the

68

FLOODS AND FEVER 69

bedroom on the floor. After all it might have
been worse.

For a week the air had been very sultry and
there had been mutterings of thunder all
around us so that we had expected rain any
day or night, and had got the most of our loads
in under the roof on the back veranda.

On this day it had been particularly sultry,
and when Mrs. Springer and Mr. Heinkel had
their four o'clock tea, a welcome and really
necessary bit of refreshment in that climate,
they spoke of the probability of a shower ; but,
after all, it seemed less likely that one would
occur than it had for a week, so no further
preparations were made for it.

At five o'clock, however, it began to sprinkle,
but in such large drops that there was no
reason to suppose it would amount to any-
thing. Mrs. Springer went over to the little
shelter, but in a few minutes it began to drip
like a sieve, so she went to our tent and had
hardly got inside before a tropical tornado
burst on the place in all its fury.

The tent rocked and swayed before the wind
and streams of water began to trickle in
through the holes that had been eaten out of
the roof by the mischievous crickets. The
thunder and lightning were terrific and hail

70 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

pelted noisily on the steel poles. The daylight
had suddenly been swallowed up in the black-
ness of the storm, and then, as another wave
of angry tempest surged from the northeast,
the tent was lifted as by the hands of a mighty
monster and then collapsed, burying Mrs.
Springer under its wet, clammy folds.

"I concluded," she remarked humorously,
"that it was about time for me to be moving,
so I crawled out as best I could from under
the wet, heavy folds of the tent and made a
bolt through the downpour for the house
several yards distant. Here I found Mr.
Heinkel and all the boys looking for all the
world like so many wet chickens standing on
one foot after being caught in a shower."

It was quite dark already, only relieved by
the blinding flashes of lightning. It had
grown very cold too during the hailstorm. The
collapse of the tent and the sudden fury of
the storm had caused her to go out without
first getting a wrap and she thought she would
go inside the house to see if it was warmer
there. Alas ! we had not yet filled in the floors
on the inside of the house nor dug a drain
ditch at the back, so she stepped into six inches
or more of icy water which did not add to her
comfort.

FLOODS AND FEVER 71

After another half hour the storm abated a
trifle and Mr. Heinkel was able to get to a bale
of trading blankets which they gratefully used
to wrap around themselves. There wasn't a
dry chip nor a dry piece of wood in the house,
but about seven o'clock the fury of the storm
had passed over so that the boys wrere able to
cast about and, in spite of wet wood, to make
two fires, one in each bedroom. It was neces-
sary for them to occupy our bedroom that
night, and as Mr. Heinkel's tent was flooded
and his bed soaking wet, for him to occupy the
other. At eight o'clock Mrs. Springer's tent
was set up again and the middle of her bed
was found to be dry. They had some smoky
tea by an awfully smoky fire and then she went
to bed.

As I said, the center of her bed, which was
on a pile of grass, was dry, an island around
which was an inch or so of water. But the
next day was bright and sunny so that all the
blankets and soaked contents of bags and
boxes could be dried.

So when I arrived, I found her in the midst
of trunks and all sorts of other impedimenta
which had just been moved up to the house, as
it was evident that we could no longer remain
in safety in our tent.

72 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

The next day I hastily nailed a few poles
together and we filled a mattress, which Mrs.
Springer had made from native cloth with
grass, and, crude and clumsy as it was, we
rejoiced in the luxury of a bed of a sort after
five months of sleeping on the ground.

We slept in the room planned for my study,
and the work of plastering our bedroom and
filling in its earthen floor was pushed rapidly
and fires were kept burning to dry it as rapidly
as possible. It was necessary for me to build
a leopard-proof goat house, for we now had
several goats which were supplying our table
with milk. I could hardly drive myself to do
the work, I felt so utterly weary, but Mr.
Heinkel was pushing the work on the house for
all he was worth, and so there was no other
way to get the goats cared for than to do it
myself. Then, too, I had to send Mr. Heinkel
down to Ifunda to get meal and to try to get
carriers, but he returned without being able
to get either. The situation was exceedingly
depressing.

I realized that I must again go forth and
make one more desperate effort in the matter
of food and men, but before going it was im-
portant to get Mrs. Springer installed in the
east bedroom, though it was still wet with a

FLOODS AND FEVER 73

fresh coat of plaster and the new-made mud
floor. But we kept a fire burning in the center
of the room which somewhat mitigated the
dampness.

While I was gone Mrs. Springer tried to
get the house into a somewhat homelike
appearance. We had no doors nor windows
at all, so the first day after I left she wrote in
her diary, "I have felt wonderfully fit all day
[two days previously she had been in bed].
Moved my bed and made canvas curtains for
the two doors, and had Mutombo put a shelf
in the back room for our boxes" (to keep them
off the floor and safe from the white ants, or
termites).

A few days later she made a desperate effort
to get the dining-room in shape for my home-
coming and wrote, "I quite overdid to-day; I
was so keen to get the dining-room to look
like a room rather than a barn." (We had so
far been eating on the veranda while the din-
ing-room was being floored and plastered.)
"I nailed a lot of pole legs into boxes and then
I nailed two of them together with boards so
that I got a very respectable sideboard. Two
more boxes fitted into the bay window for the
letter trays, typewriter, etc." Incidentally
she mentions three loads of meal which arrived

74 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

from me, then, "Songoro stepped on a knife
this evening and cut quite a gash in his heel."

O those weary, weary days ! Even now, after
four years and transported thousands of miles
away from these scenes, though in bustling,
luxurious America, we can still feel the
chronic ache of nerves and muscles of those
days as we review those experiences. Pioneer-
ing in mission work has its romance, but it is
chiefly in prospect and retrospect, the reality
being one of plodding, yet interesting, routine.

For weeks we had all toiled incessantly
through sultry heat and unutterable physical
discomfort. But now our house was at least
habitable, the boys were under roofs, and the
goats in a leopard-proof pen, the schoolroom
was ready and we looked forward to opening
school on Monday morning.

On Sunday we held our first service in the
new schoolhouse and had the Holy Communion.
Kazembe and a large crowd were over at the
service. I found myself in an unusually emo-
tional mood, and at the end of the service
realized that I had fever and had to go to bed.
This was my first touch of fever since 1907, on
that trip across the continent, when only one
hundred and twenty-five miles due east of our
present site, then all terra incognita to us.

FLOODS AND FEVER 75

My temperature speedily ran up to 104°, and
it was several hours before I could be brought
to perspire, and it did not then get down to
normal. The next morning it started up again
and went higher still. The third day it was
still above 101°, but on the fourth day I seemed
all right. Mr. Heinkel now had to go to bed
with fever and Mrs. Springer was having all
she could do to keep out of bed. I got up and
sat on the veranda while the grass was taken
out of our mattress and sunned. One can
hardly believe how damp it was from my exces-
sive sweating.

That night I was very restless and the room
seemed stifling. This illness was due to long
weeks of exposure and overwork, the sleeping
in native villages with neither mosquito nets
nor proper shelter and, on my last trip, run-
ning out of a supply of quinine. As I lay on
my bed I felt as if I should go mad if I lay
there any longer. Mrs. Springer was sleeping
the sleep of exhaustion, so I stole out quietly,
wrapped myself in my dressing-gown and read
for an hour before she awoke and persuaded
me to return to bed.

The next morning was rainy, and Mr.
Heinkel was still confined to his bed with
fever, so Mrs. Springer took the school in the

76 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

forenoon. I got up about noon and ate lunch
with her, but before I had finished I was seized
with another chill. I soon learned that I had
the dreaded haematuric or blackwater fever.
Noting the fact to my wife, I took her in my
arms saying, "We are in the hands of God and
can but leave the issue with him." Then we
knelt down and in a few words committed our
case to the Great Physician, and I went to bed,
not to get out again for more than a month.

We now realized to the full our isolation.
Our nearest white neighbor was the govern-
ment official seventy miles east at Kayoyo, and
the nearest physician was Dr, Fisher at Kaleni
Hill, eighty miles distant over in Northern
Rhodesia. It was useless to send for him, as
he could not get there in less than eight days
under the best conditions, while now the
flooded rivers made the trail almost impass-
able.

None of us had ever had any experience with
a case of haematuria. We had one of the two
standard remedies with us, having kept our-
selves provided with it for years. But un-
fortunately vomiting set in so that the medi-
cine would not remain long enough in the
stomach to take action. All that long after-
noon and through the longer night, Mrs.

FLOODS AND FEVER 77

Springer fought with death. Over in the west
room Mr. Heinkel lay too ill to be of any assist-
ance. I myself was barely conscious of any-
thing but excruciating pain, broken by vomit-
ing spells, after which I would relapse into
delirium. As no medicine would stay on my
stomach, there was but one thing to do, and so
for ten or twelve hours I was bathed from
head to foot, carefully avoiding any chance of
chill. At eleven that night the thermometer
registered 105° and over, but at midnight I
began to perspire and the next problem was to
change my drenched clothing rapidly enough
to prevent another chill. By morning all my
changes of night clothes had been drenched
and Mrs. Springer had to borrow from Mr.
Heinkel.

But before noon that day the hemorrhage
had ceased, though the vomiting continued
unabated for nearly a month, being provoked
afresh by the slightest thing. The most up-
setting thing was our Billy goat with his
strong musk odor. If he passed the house
within thirty feet and the wind was houseward
it would set me into a violent fit of vomiting.

Now fresh milk is one of the first articles of
diet a fever patient can take, and there is noth-
ing more easily digested usually than goat's

78 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

milk. We were getting a good supply from our
two milking goats, but it seemed to me that
the goat odor was most pronounced. Perhaps
my imagination was working overtime, but
each attempt to drink the goat milk only
brought on fresh nausea.

Absolute quiet and freedom from care is a
necessary part of convalescence from fever, but
this was impossible in my case. There being
neither doors nor windows nor ceilings, and as
the partitions of the rooms only went up to
the height of the walls, I could hear everything
that was going on inside and outside the house.
I simply could not shake off the burden of
responsibility which rested upon me. It was
also necessary for me to call in Mr. Heinkel
from time to time in order to consult about
the work and to tell my wife of some important
letters which must be written. It is hardly
necessary to add that all of these occasions
were followed by exhaustion and attacks of
vomiting.

School had begun the next morning after I
was taken sick, but it had to be looked after
by Mr. Heinkel when he was well enough, and
when he too was ill with fever, Jacob and Jim
did their best to keep things going.

My thought was also concerned with the

FLOODS AND FEVER 79

problem of getting the further supplies that
were necessary. Now that the rains were on
in earnest, all thought of getting the carriers
that I had been seeking to go down to the rail-
road for supplies had to be abandoned. Parcel
post was now our only hope, and it was our
temporal salvation for the year and a half that
we remained at Lukoshi. One of the things
that had to be done during my illness was the
making out and sending our initial orders to
the stores at Bulawayo, one thousand miles
distant. The Belgian post route through
Kayoyo was not opened up for a long time
after we came to Lukoshi, so we got our mail
from Dr. Fisher's station, which had been
made a government post office, as mission sta-
tions frequently are in the remote interior.

While I lay there on my back the rains con-
tinued to fall in force and the rivers to rise.
The bridge at the east of our grounds was first
swept away and then the one at the west. On
one occasion before I was up, at about sun-
down, there was a shout from the opposite
bank and there stood two mail boys from
Kaleni. But how to get the mail over. "Kun
and get the bath," commanded Mrs. Springer.
The boys got our smaller tin bath and Songoro
and Kalinswiki, who were excellent swimmers,

80 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

towed it across the river for two trips, thus
bringing all the mail over by this unique
method.

And as the rains fell and the rivers swelled,
vegetation fairly jumped, and millions of in-
sects sprang into being. Our garden seeds
sprouted and appeared, only to be instantly
devoured by the hosts of insects that seemed
to be just waiting for them.

Only the brakes and grass defied this vora-
cious army and the superiority of man. We
had not been able to cut away much of the
forest around our house before I was taken ill,
and I shall never forget the powerful impres-
sion made upon me in those days of weakness,
as though the wilderness would press in on and
crowd upon, overwhelm, and smother us.
When I had gone to bed there was practically
no grass to be seen and our station site had
been hoed so that it was bare of vegetation.
On the first day that I was up and looked
through the open door, the sight of that mass
of brakes and grass nearly two feet high
scarcely a yard away from the veranda, seemed
to my weakened body like some great monster
fairly holding me by the throat.

From my earliest years in Africa, in clear-
ing building sites, subduing gardens, making

FLOODS AND FEVER 81

and maintaining paths and roads, and other-
wise introducing the conditions of civilized
life, I have ever been impressed with what I
can no better describe than the strength, the
challenging vitality of primitive and as yet
unsubdued Africa.

But strong and vital as is nature in Africa,
there is in man a greater strength and vitality,
that of the spirit; and in all parts of Africa
men are meeting the challenge and subduing
the wilderness in obedience to God's first com-
mand to man. And though often individually
beaten back and even overcome by the Grim
Messenger, yet collectively man flashes back
the challenge and advances steadily as a con-
queror, aided by the facilities of industry and
the knowledge of modern science.

And in me in those days, as returning
strength began to pulsate in my veins, there
arose the answer to nature as I looked out
through the open doorway, that we would con-
quer and subdue her and make her great
vitality and resources subservient to man.

Serious as I knew that illness to be, my spirit
never for a moment despaired of recovery
and I learned afresh the mighty lesson of the
essential mastery of mind over matter, of spirit
over nature, and of God over all and in all.

CHAPTER VII
LANGUAGE STUDY

THE rest of 1911 was one of continual sick-
ness of one or two of our party. I had hardly
got out of bed when Mrs. Springer went in for
ten days of hard fever. At Christmas I had
an ulcerated tooth and a face like a gorilla.
It is hardly possible to have a "Merry Christ-
mas" under such conditions. Just at the close
of my illness, Mr. Heinkel had a severe attack
of fever and for two or three days Mrs.
Springer feared that he had blackwater as
well. It was an anxious time for her, with
myself helpless in the east end of the house
and with him sick abed in the west end.

But with the passing out of the old year,
there came a happy change in the tide of our
affairs. The last day of the old year came on
Sunday and the new era was then ushered in
with the baptism of Songora, who took the
Christian name of Peter, his prototype. We
had the Holy Communion for the first time
since that other Sunday when I had to take to

82

LANGUAGE STUDY 83

my bed, and we all thanked God and took fresh
courage.

On New Year's Day Kazembe came over
with a present of meal ; an act so unusual as
to be worthy of note. The food situation was
somewhat relieved now by getting meal and
salt through Mr. Frykberg of Kalulua, seventy
miles away. Of course it made the expense
of living very high indeed, but was unavoid-
able at that time.

On January 8th the first Lunda boy came
to the school. He had been hanging around
for some time doing odd jobs for Jim, receiv-
ing in payment an old shirt in which his little
figure was nearly swallowed up. He was a
funny looking lad, mere skin and bones, from
scant feeding. His name was Kapenda. We
did not have the remotest idea that he would
stay a whole month, but he is still in the
Mission after four years. While Mrs. Springer
was working on the revision of the Luunda
translation of Mark at Kambove in 1914,
Kapenda was one of her best helpers. At pres-
ent writing he is with Dr. and Mrs. Piper at
Mwata Yamvo's.

Two days after this a man came from the
village and said he wanted a job to teach us
Luunda, so we hired him on the spot. What

84 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

with all our building and illness, we had not
made great headway in reducing the language
to writing. The only work along this line ever
accomplished was a very meager portion ; done,
more than twenty-five years before, by Senhor
Cavalho, a Portuguese. He had made his study
of Luunda on an expedition from the west
coast to Mwata Yamvo, east of the Kassai
Kiver. Nevertheless, we found the little work
he had done remarkably accurate and a great
help to us in settling difficult questions, espe-
cially of grammar.

We had taken with us an Edison business
phonograph, and we now had the natives speak
into it, making Luunda records to which we
listened, getting considerable benefit, though
not as much as we would have gotten had we
been able to get teachers who knew English
as well. Our "teachers" knew Luunda all
right, but they had not the remotest idea how
to impart their knowledge, and they grew very
tired of answering questions which seemed to
them silly and pointless, but which were to us
of vital importance. It was unfortunate that
most of the natives who came to sell food
spoke the Chindembwe rather than the Luunda,
for consequently we did not have a chance to
practice the language in our daily intercourse

LANGUAGE STUDY 85

with the natives. We have mentioned that
Jacob, Jim, and Peter had spent nearly three
years in our Angola missions near Malange,
where they had learned the Kimbundu, which
is a kindred language to the Luunda. Jacob
was essentially a linguist and his help in the
work of learning the Luunda was very valu-
able. In the earlier stages of our work, we
found that we could make the greatest prog-
ress and produce the best results by translat-
ing the excellent Kimbundu versions into the
Luunda. By this means we soon had the
Lord's Prayer, the twenty-third psalm, several
hymns, and part of the catechism for our daily
use.

Although there has been so much written
on the Bantu languages, there still remains
much misconception of them in the popular
mind. There is an idea that they must be a
missing link between monkey language and the
human speech. Nothing could be more errone-
ous. The Bantu languages follow most exact
rules of grammar and are far more perfectly
constructed than English and some of the
European languages.

They are all noted for two things. They are
absolutely devoid of gender and form their
plurals by means of prefixes instead of suffixes.

86 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

They generally have ten to twelve classes of
nouns and three classes of locative nouns,
which are used instead of the English preposi-
tion. All these features are very bewildering
to the new student of the Bantu, but when
one has once mastered the fundamental prin-
ciples of one Bantu language, it is a compara-
tively easy matter to learn another.

The first class is usually the one from which
the word bantu is taken. Muntu is a man,
often a head also, the generic term of man, that
is, a person. Bantu is the plural. Huti is one
tree ; miti are two trees. Chitanda, one chair ;
zitanda, chairs. So far it is not so rough sailing.
But in some of these classes, the original pre-
fixes have been dropped in the word itself, but
must appear in the other parts of the sentence,
for it is another rule of all the Bantu lan-
guages that these prefixes must appear in the
adjectives and verbs and take the place of
many of the pronouns. Thus in Luunda, a good
man is, muntu muwampi; good men, antu
awampi. A good tree, mutondo muwampi;
good trees, mitondo miwampi. A good ox,
ngombe yawampi; good oxen, ngombe zawampL

The first word in the translation of the
Gospel of Mark, is an illustration of the loca-
tive classes. "In the beginning," is translated

LANGUAGE STUDY 87

"Kusambishe." Now the preposition "of" con-
sists of "a" with the consonants of the prefix
of the word to which it belongs. Therefore in
the following sentence the preposition "of" is
spelled in three different ways following an
inflexible rule. "Kusambisha kwa rusangu
rwa Jesu Kristu, Mwana wa Nzambi." "In
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God."

Just at this time we were intensely inter-
ested in the advent of three men from the north
with a message from Mwata Yamvo to Ka-
zembe that he was to send his tribute at an
early date. They said that Mwata Yamvo had
heard of us and had sent them to tell us also
that he wanted a missionary to come to his
town to teach his people. These men sat down
and gave us several hours' help on the Luunda
and at that time, as we have ever found since,
there was shown the greatest gratification that
we were taking up the study of the Luunda
and making books out of it which could be
taught to the youths of the country. As we
got further into the language, we found it to
be one of the best of the many Bantu lan-
guages, a delight to learn and to use.

We were decidedly limited at this time in
our enjoyments and recreations. Part of the

88 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

time both our bridges were swept away and we
were cut off from most of the near villages. So
one of our diversions was the setting up of a
marked stick at the river's edge and noting its
rise and fall. The natives had built a large
fish weir across the wide part of the river on
the east side just below our first bridge, and
the question as to when that dam would burst
was the only real excitement we had for some
weeks. We were quite gleeful when at last
the mass of waters swept it down the river,
even though it meant the carrying away of the
west bridge, leaving us no connections with
the other side. It also meant that we had to
build two new bridges, which involved hard
wwk. Nevertheless we got a lot of keen enjoy-
ment out of watching the river, which seemed
almost like a living thing in its varying moods
and phases.

Speaking of the river, one day Kanuka, our
Luunda teacher, came to me with an air of
great secrecy. He had sought Jacob out first
and explained the situation to him, and then
the two came to me. He had caught an enor-
mous fish, which he had brought (crossing the
river about two miles below us on a tree that
had been felled across the stream, and which
was now covered with two or three feet of

MWANAGATWE BRINGING IN
MUSHROOMS

JIM BAKING BREAD IN
CAMP

MR. AND MRS. SPRINGER
STARTING ON A JOURNEY

DENTISTRY WAS AN INCIDENT-
AL PROFESSION

LANGUAGE STUDY 89

water), and he had hid the fish in the tall
grass by a tree on the river bank in order to
come up quietly and talk the matter over with
us.

What he wanted to do was to sell us the
fish. But the custom of the olden time had
always been that whosoever caught one of these
particular big "king" fishes must take it to
the chief as a present, or be accused of witch-
craft. This was the only one he had caught
this year and he wanted the pay that he could
get from it, but did not want to take any
chance of being accused of witchcraft. I had
him go and fetch it. It weighed twenty-four
pounds and looked good to us, as we had been
so hard pushed to get any kind of food since
coming to Lukoshi. I assured Kanuka that
according to the white man's law he had a
perfect right to sell the fish and that I would
not advertise the buying of it, so that he might
be spared the charge of witchcraft. The result
was that for the next two or three days every-
one on our station had a good feed of fish. Our
boys were quite successful fishers all through
the rainy season.

Fetishism and witchcraft were the prevail-
ing forms of religion, if such they could be
called. At least these were the outward ex-

90 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

pressions which indicated the gropings of the
soul within. One day Kazembe sent word to
me that a certain witch doctor, the Nkishi, had
come to his village and would give a dance the
next day, and that if I wished to come over and
see the performance I might.

Mr. Heinkel and I went over and, by the
way, nearly got sunstroke from standing on a
totally unshaded vlei to witness the dance.
Why in the name of common sense he should
have chosen the hottest and most uncomfort-
able place in that whole region, I have never
been able to comprehend. In that forest coun-
try it was far easier to find a cool, shady spot
for his performance than the hot one which he
selected.

He was dressed in a pair of European
trousers, a heavy, striped sweater, and had a
large, heavy mask surmounted with feathers
over his face. He had a sort of dressing room
on the edge of the forest and Chidiani and
another young buck acted as attendants.

Every man, woman, and child in that whole
group of villages was gathered on that hot
vlei and there was a thrill of expectancy and
mystery over the whole place. The Nkishi
would emerge, clad in his terrible looking garb,
and dance till he was nearly suffocated and

LANGUAGE STUDY 91

exhausted, when he would retire and after a
little rest come forth again. The dance was
offensive, to put it very mildly. He kept this
up for two or three days, impressing on the
people the necessity of their holding to their
old customs and rites. When he left he carried
away with him a lot of rich presents in the way
of cloth, guns, etc.

.On the fifth of March we sent Jacob and
Peter on an evangelistic trip to the north to
explore that country, get acquainted with and
preach to the natives, and investigate the
report that had come to us through the natives
that only four days north of us there was a
store in charge of white men.

During the three weeks they were gone they
endured no few hardships — it rained much of
the time, they lost their way, and their guide
fell ill and died. In spite of all this they
returned with an enthusiastic account. Jacob
had taken paper and pencil with him and, as
instructed, made a map as he traveled, putting
on every village, stream, lake, swamp, and
anything else that would be of interest and
importance, also the distances as he judged
them. He computed the distances from his
watch, allowing about three miles an hour. I
went over this whole route later with compass,

92 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

bicycle, and cyclometer, and was surprised to
find how accurate he had been.

He had found several large villages where
the people were intensely interested in the
Good News that he was the first to bring to
them, and two of the sub-chiefs in particular
were very eager to have us come and build
near them.

He also found a store of the Kassai
(Rubber) Co., and brought back a letter from
the agent stating that we could buy salt, cloth,
beads, and brass wire at the store; and what
was more, I found that I could get it there
cheaper than I could bring it in from the rail-
road. This for the next year was an untold
blessing to us.

Jacob was at his best in evangelistic work.
He had had a deep religious experience. He
was a notable illustration of what Miss Mac-
kenzie mentioned years ago when she said,
"Only God can explain the miracle of resurrec-
tion in a native African soul, the joy where
there has been such misery, the innocence
where there has been such vice, the native
youth where there has been such age-long
iniquity, the immediate access to God where
there has been such estrangement. There is an
intimacy between God and the renewed African

LANGUAGE STUDY 93

soul which makes the missionary feel every
now and then the twinge of the elder brother's
jealousy as though left out of some happy
secret."

Just after the return of Jacob and Peter an
incident occurred which threw a gloom over
our mission even as the murder of Nyahainba
had done seven months before. It was on a
Sunday and we had had an unusually good
morning service and were in a very happy,
cheerful mood. We three were sitting out on
the front veranda pleasantly anticipating the
announcement that dinner was on the table.
You know the mood. The station was alive
with the sounds of chattering, laughing groups
of boys wandering around also waiting for
their dinner.

One group of boys strolled by toward the
west bridge — not that they intended to fish —
O, no ! but, at any rate, it would do no harm
to just stroll down and see if they could see
the fish from the top of the new bridge, that
was all. In this group was a Mundembwe boy
by the name of Chiwahi, a fine young lad.

Just a year previously, while passing
through Chiwahi's village, his mother had
brought the lad out and presented him to me
saying, "Here is my boy and I want you to take

94 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

and teach Mm. We are too old to learn, for
our heads are now thick. But I want you to
take my boy along with you and let him learn."

So the lad had been with us a year and was
making rapid progress in his classes, and in
every phase of his temporal and spiritual life.
He had a winsome personality. We often com-
mented on his favorable progress.

Now as we sat there waiting for our welcome
call, a terrible scream suddenly broke on the
air and then another and another. What could
it mean! We caught a glimpse of Chiwahi
fairly flying up from the river bank to the com-
pound, the others close at his heels. It didn't
look like a row. What could it be?

Before we could make a move in the matter,
Mwana Gatwe reached us on the run. He said
that they had met two men down on the bridge
and that these men had come to tell Chiwahi
that a day or two before his father had been
killed, a neighbor wounded, and his mother
and all the children captured and taken away
into slavery. A few minutes later the men
came along and we learned from them that the
story was all too true. Just then another boy
came to say that Chiwahi had started to run
to his village, so I hastily sent others to over-
take him and bring him back, saying that I

LANGUAGE STUDY 95

would go early on the morrow, it being too late
to start then, and would take Chiwahi along.

The rest of the day we were unable to think
of anything but the horrible picture that had
been put before us. I hastily collected a few
articles of clothing, medicine, and bandages,
a little food, a hoe and shovel, and taking
nearly all the school along with me, started
early the next morning for Chiwahi's village,
about fifteen miles away.

Although we now had another bridge across
the Lukoshi, I had to wade in water a half a
mile on the other side. Then at the end of
our journey I had to cross the river again to
get to ChiwahPs village, another half mile of
wading, together with crossing on a submerged
log, and a quarter of a mile further on we came
to the deserted village.

The sight was a ghastly one. Here were
evidences of where a tolerably large party had
made the attack and Chiwahi's father had
been killed in the attempt to protect his
family. One could see that there had been a
desperate struggle, and pools of blood lay dried
and blistered under the early afternoon sun.
We found Chiwahi's father lying in his hut
with the door heavily barricaded on the out-
side. His friends had carried him in there

96 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

after the attack, and then sent the two messen-
gers to tell their chief Kazembe and Chiwahi.

The first thing to do was to bury the dead
man, who had been dead already two days.
While the boys were digging in the hard
ground I went to the adjoining village, which
had also suffered attack and where the head-
man had been shot through the arm near the
elbow. The wound was in a fearful condition
and I feared blood poisoning would set in. I
dressed it carefully and tried earnestly to get
the men of that village to bring him to the
Mission where I could treat him. But the
heathen usually know little of mercy and
brotherly kindness, and they would not lift a
finger to save the man's life when it meant any
trouble to themselves. I slept that night in
this little village and returned the next day to
the Mission, but Chiwahi went on to tell his
nearest of kin, his uncle, the dreadful news.

We all expected that in a week or two, or a
month at the most, Chiwahi would return to
the Mission and resume his place in the school.
But matters arose of which mention will be
made later, that first delayed and finally pre-
vented his ever returning to us.

CHAPTER VIII
ON TO MWATA YAMVO

ON May 17, just five years and four days
after our setting out from Broken Hill to ex-
plore this unknown section of country for our-
selves, we left LukosM to go to the capital of
Mwata Yamvo.

In 1907 it had been impossible to penetrate
the Lunda country to the capital on account
of the activities of the cannibals throughout
the whole southwest portion of the Congo.

In 1910, after reaching Kalulua, I spent
nearly a week in vain attempts to get carriers
to take me there.

In 1911, just after reaching Lukoshi, I found
some Ambunda in one of the Chokwe villages
who wanted me to go with them and help them
rescue the daughter of one of the men who had
been seized as a slave. As the Ambunda were
principally the ones to prey on and enslave the
Alunda, it was an exceptional case to have one
of their own people caught.

I had agreed to go and help them and

97

98 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

planned then to press on to Mwata Yamvo's,
and they promised to furnish the carriers, but
when Kazembe killed Nyahamba the whole
affair was off, since all the men in the region
were needed at home to defend their own vil-
lages.

In all of these cases we sought to know the
Divine will and plan as to time, and the events
that followed made it clear to us.

We were now convinced that the time had
come to go. Our present building operations
could be cared for by Mr. Heinkel, and
although I had not yet fully recovered from my
illness, I felt that strength would be given me
for that trip. The fact is that I was in bed
with fever the week before starting, but as
there are only three months when one can be
certain of not having rain, it was necessary to
go at that time or put it off until the next year.

I thought that I would have no difficulty
whatever in getting carriers for the entire trip.
Surely the young men would be only too glad
to visit their paramount chief, making the
journey under the protection of the white man.
Then, too, Kazembe had been notified twice
that he must bring his tribute, and he had
especially requested me to go with him, which
would also give him protection. He had most

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 99

of his tribute ready and we had waited a week
or two for him, but he said that he was just
waiting for some salt to add to his tribute and
then he would go. However, when we were
ready and I told him that we could wait no
longer, he said that he had received word of a
contemplated attack on him by one Chipepela
and he dared not leave. Eventually Kazembe
and his people ate the cow, the meal, and other
portions of the tribute prepared for Mwata
Yainvo, and to this day no tribute has been
sent.

As usual, I got no help from Kazembe in
procuring carriers. On the contrary he im-
pressed on all his young men that they should
not go with me, but wait for and go with him.
I sent Jim out, but the best he could do was to
engage two or three to go with me four days
and then turn back. One of these men came
a two days' journey to Lukoshi and then
backed out before ever we started. Such a lot
of faint-hearts as this country contained !

I had greatly desired to take the phonograph
and get some records made by Mwata Yamvo
himself, but there was no one to carry it. Had
I not been confined to my bed by fever while
all the preparations were being made, I might
have gone out and had better success in getting

100 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

men. By leaving the phonograph and reduc-
ing our loads to such a minimum that we suf-
fered for food on the road and were compelled
much of the time to live on sour mush, we were
finally able to get away from Lukoshi. Mrs.
Springer had four carriers for her hammock,
none of them of much account, and three of
whom objected to the fourth, saying that he
walked like a cow. We did not get away from
our station until two in the afternoon and so
had to camp six miles on, where we had a lively
evening service with some twenty children
who came out full of wonder to see us.

The next day we made only ten miles, as our
carriers were too weak to make time. One man
showed me his wrist as proof of his enfeebled
condition. It was as small as a child's. I
asked him why, when he and his family were
actually starving, he would not work and earn
food, but he shook his head and gave no an-
swer. Nor can I give one. Many of those
natives were starving and yet they would not
work in any way to earn food either for them-
selves or for their children. And it was simply
the neglect to dig gardens that had brought
them to starvation.

At the next village, one of the carriers began
to wail loudly, and his friends came to me and

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 101

said that he had just heard of his father's death
and that he must return at once to mourn for
him. Since he had just come from his father
and had not been overtaken by anyone, we
could not have a great deal of faith in what he
said. But he wailed all night and all the next
day, Sunday, till I finally told him that if he
could get a substitute he could go. As to his
friends' petition to go with him, I absolutely
turned that down. They had agreed to go to
Kimpuki and to Kimpuki they must go.

Mrs. Springer's machilla team was prac-
tically a farce. They did not have the strength,
or thought they didn't, to carry her, so they
were loaded up with odds and ends to relieve
some of the others who had been loaded rather
heavily on our start, and she had to walk about
all the way.

We were now following the trail which
Jacob had taken in March. There were four
large towns between Lukoshi and Kimpuki
besides many small villages. Jacob had found
these people keen to hear about the object of
the mission and he had talked and preached to
the people until he was hoarse. And each
chief wanted that we should come and build
near him.

So we were obliged to go slowly, spending a

102 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

day and night at each village. We were espe-
cially taken with the chief Mpereta and his
very large town. Mpereta was a very pleasant
man, quiet, dignified, and conservative.

It is the custom when a white man comes
to a village to first call for the chief. He then
waits quietly until the chief appears and
brings a present, usually of meal and fowls.
There are cases where a goat or even an ox
will be brought as a present, but in most parts
of central Africa the present consists of native
meal and native fowls, tiny half-grown ban-
tams, skinny and full of pin feathers.

Mpereta brought out several baskets of good
cassava meal and two fowls. He made the
usual speech that he was ashamed of his in-
significant present for the white man, but his
was a small village and they were all poor. I
accepted it with thanks and made a present of
cloth, which I regretted to be the best I could
do. Then I told the chief who I was and what
my business was. Some of the white men came
to his village to buy rubber : others to collect
taxes. Those two things were all right in
their way, but I had come for neither.

I always took a Bible with me and showing
it to the chiefs, would explain that this was
the revelation of the heavenly Father to men ;

MPERETE'S WAS A TYPICAL VILLAGE
MPERETE BROUGHT OUT His PRESENT

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 103

His letter to us, and so I had brought this let-
ter from Him to them, and it was my business
to teach them so that they could read His
letter themselves and know the message their
heavenly Father had sent to them. I would
then briefly outline the salient features of the
gospel and say, "But you will soon forget what
the white man says to you. The best thing you
can do is to send your boys to the school to
learn so that they can return and read God's
Book to you and keep His words ever before
you."

I would then teach them a verse of a simple
hymn, and by the time we left there would be
at least that one verse committed to heart and
they would have that as a reminder of the
message I had brought.

In this case, there were fully one hundred
and twenty-five as eager listeners as ever I
had in my life. God grant that the time may
not be far distant when there will be a mis-
sionary to go to this section of country and
reach the many villages which now are sitting
in darkness.

The next morning as we were leaving
Mpereta's village, two incidents made a lasting
impression on our minds. A mile from where
we were camped just on the edge of the town

104 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

was a phallic emblem post decorated with the
bleached skulls of little children, showing how
the cannibals had terrorized the country in
1907, when we had so desired to pass through
this way and could not, as the government
positively refused to allow us to take that
route.

We might have been safe personally, though
one white man had been attacked but a short
time before we reached Ruwi, from which point
we had to turn southward out of our course.
But certain it is that our carriers would never
have gone that way. As a matter of fact, I
had to promise my carriers that I would avoid
this cannibal country before they would leave
Ruwi with me. Nor can they be much blamed.
No one would relish the prospect of being
served, cooked or uncooked, at a cannibal
feast.

This section was then under the government
of the Kassai Co., a Belgian rubber trading
company, which waged war on these cannibals
and finally conquered them and gave peace to
the Lunda and Chokwe villages.

Tribes of Central Africa differ; most of
them have been cannibals at one time or an-
other, particularly as regards eating their
enemies in times of war, with the belief that

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 105

the courage and strength of the eaten enemies
will thereby enter into themselves.

In this way there has doubtless been culti-
vated in many of the tribes a taste for human
flesh, and to this day there are tribes to the
north of the Lunda field where slaves are fat-
tened for set, or occasional, feasts and where
no white men have been allowed to enter.

The other incident concerned Mrs. Springer.
As she marched out of the village nearly a
score of girls followed her for about three
miles, importuning her to come and live there
and teach them. They were such bright, lov-
able girls that it made her heart ache to hear
them and know that she could not accept their
invitation or respond to their appeal. I was
in advance and did not see nor hear them.
These girls were in earnest. They had un-
doubtedly heard from Jacob what it meant to
the native women of a tribe to have a mission
in their midst and so they ran along by my
wife's side for miles, begging in most pleading
tones that she would come and "sit" (which is
their word for living) among them.

I have never met a man who was more in-
sistent on having a missionary than Mpereta.
There was no suitable place for a mission near
his present village, but he told me that he

106 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

intended to build on the Luebo River the next
year. That meant he would not be settled
for two years — therefore we could not for the
present consider his case. By the time he was
settled we knew that we could build at but
one place, and that place must be at the capital
of Mwata Yamvo. We have not seen Mpereta
or his people since.

Six miles beyond Mpereta's farthest out-
village we came to Chipepela's village. He
was away from home, but had left word that
if I came he was to be called from his rubber-
gathering camp, as he greatly desired to meet
me. I told his representative that I could not
wait, but must move on early the next morning.
I met him, however, the next year and found
him to be a deep-dyed rascal, intriguing for
the deposing of Mwata Yamvo and aspiring
to fill that place. He claimed that he was the
rightful heir to this throne.

He was one of four pretenders to the throne
that we met. All of these claimed to be the
legitimate sons of former Mwata Yamvos,
which was quite possible. When a man has a
few hundred wives, there are likely to be
several sons all of whom consider themselves
his rightful heirs.

As the present incumbent of the throne of

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 107

the Ltinda country must know of these in-
trigues and plots against his life and position,
we came to realize that even here in the wilds
of Central Africa, as in other parts of the
world, "uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown."

At Kimpuki we came to our first of the
many Kassai Co. "factories," as the Belgians
call them. Here we met a Mr. Tyson, whose
mother was an American woman and so he
spoke English perfectly, though his father was
a Belgian, and he had been born and raised in
Belgium. He was delighted to meet us. His
superior, M. Boccar, though he could not speak
English, and at that time neither of us could
speak French, was also very hearty in his wel-
come to us.

This trading station was like most of the
others, consisting of four main buildings,
two for residences, one for buying, and the
other for storing and drying rubber. These
stations have at least two white men on them
and more if needed. Their rule is that one
man shall always be on the station and one
man itinerating in the villages. Therefore
each white man is alternately on the station
two weeks in the month and two weeks out in
the villages. Both are on the station for two

108 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

or three days at the end of the month when
making out their monthly reports.

Here we were able to buy salt and other
trading goods to send back with Jim and the
carriers who had stipulated that this was as
far as they would go. By the courtesy of Mr.
Boccar and Mr. Tyson we were also given
carriers for the next stage of our journey. We
learned here that we could not buy anything
in the shape of European food. The Kassai
Co. ration their white men, and absolutely
forbid them to sell any of their food supplies.
We have had them give us sugar, butter, or a
few tins of anything they could spare, but it
was worth a man's job to sell a single thing
that he received as rations. This was to pre-
vent the men selling their food for money and
then falling ill as a consequence of living on
native food and having insufficient nourish-
ment, a wise provision, indeed.

We were just a week on the next stage of the
journey, that is, from Kimpuki to Kafuchi.
We had all the carriers we needed and those
that were used to the trail. The country was
more broken. Some of the ridges were even
higher in altitude than Lukoshi. We had left
the flat, sandy divide country for a well-
drained, more sparsely wooded region. Much

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 109

of this country will some day be cultivated by
the white man. We found it very taxing to
push through the unburned grass along some
of these sections, but were glad to see land
that could be made to produce abundantly if
worked.

One forenoon we crossed some recently
made wagon tracks. It is impossible to de-
scribe the excitement we felt at seeing such
an evidence of civilization in this remote place.
We learned later that the wagon belonged to
a Portuguese trader who had passed along
that way just two days ahead of us.

We also came to some Chokwe villages,
where the people were characterized by the
same air of sullen indifference or defiance that
we had noticed among the Bachokwe west of
the Kassai River five years before.

We were told that one of the aspirants for
the throne of Mwata Yamvo twenty-five years
before this had gone out and engaged the
Bachokwe to help him in his cause. These had
invaded the country and had made a diagonal
sweep from south to north, almost cutting the
Lunda empire in two. So that at the present
time there is a section of the Alunda who pay
no tribute to Mwata Yamvo, but who consider
Kayembe Mukuru as their paramount chief.

110 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Among the Bachokwe, every village stands by
itself and true to their early standards they
acknowledge no paramount chief.

I find recorded in our dairy, "We have been
in ideal farming country nearly all day. Eich
red clay, open veldt, fine streams draining the
land, and plenty of forest near at hand. We
passed near one Alunda village, Mulamba's,
but as our guide had disappeared, we did not
learn of this village until evening. It was a
little off our trail and had an abundance of
bananas and plantains. At Ndumba's, we
found the old sort of Bachokwe. The chief
refused to come out or even see us. The people
would not come either."

The next day, this is the record : "To-day we
have had plains for most of the journey. The
vleis have extended most of the way, making
very tiresome traveling. In the rains they
would be covered with water. After seven and
a half miles, we came to Nyuwamba's village,
a large Bachokwe town. Here, too, the people
would have nothing to do with us, and the
chief fairly threw his present at us and stalked
off without waiting for a present in return.
We were to have slept there last night, but it
is just as well that we did not reach it."

The next day there was another incident

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 111

which needs a little more detail than is given
in the diary. There have not been many times
in our journey ings when we have had any
scares from wild beasts, though they have been
all around us. But on this memorable night
we certainly had a genuine fright.

We had had to go on beyond the usual camp-
ing place that night and found ourselves at
a very bad spot where it was evident no cara-
vans were in the habit of sleeping. Here was
a beautiful stream at the bottom of a deep
depression where massive trees, moss covered
with entwining vines, made a scene like fairy-
land. Beautiful as it was we could not sleep
down there on those moss-covered roots of
trees, and so we climbed the steep bank and
into the open. But even here there was no
good place to camp and, indeed, the only level
place was in a bunch of grass growing eight
feet high.

We had the boys clear a spot for our tent
and went to bed with the knowledge that we
were in a bad situation should the grass catch
fire from any flying sparks from the camp
fires.

We were awakened out of our first sound
sleep by stealthy footsteps rustling in the tall
grass. It was bright moonlight and with every

112 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

sense alert, I saw the shadow of an animal's
head against the tent and soon that head
appeared at the opening of the tent door.
From all I could see and hear, I judged it to
be a leopard and I had no gun with me. In
fact the only implement I had in the tent was
a hoe and I reached out and threw this at the
animal, yelling at it.

The animal retired and I got up and re-
covered my hoe. I looked out of the tent with
the wash basin full of water in my hands,
ready to give the beast a disheartening souse
should it be near, but could see nothing. On
account of the grass we did not have our fire
that night. And on account of the bad loca-
tion our carriers were quite a distance away.
Of course I could have called them, but since
the animal was gone what was the use?

It took us a little time to get quieted down
again after the excitement, when we again
heard that stealthy foot-fall that was hair-
raising from the feeling that something was
creeping upon us unawares, some evil, one
knows not what. I shouted and heard the
animal bound off again.

We were very weary after the day's hard
trek, and so in a half hour or so we were both
asleep again and must have slept an hour or

ON TO MWATA YAMVO 113

two when Mrs. Springer was suddenly wak-
ened by these same stealthy footsteps just on
the other side of the tent from her head. I
gave a tremendous yell and then got up and
went outside, banging the hoe about in a most
threatening way. The animal bounded off
again, and after looking at my watch and see-
ing that it was two o'clock, I went back to
bed and after a while we went to sleep and
were not disturbed again.

The next morning as we came out of our
tent we saw a poor, little half -starved native
dog with a fiber collar around his neck. He
had lost his master, or rather his master had
lost him, and he had been trying to find some
trace of him in our caravan or else to get a
belated supper. In the moonlight his shadow
had made him look like a huge beast, and in
the tall grass his timid advances had sounded
like the foot-falls of a leopard. We coaxed
him to follow us the nine miles to the next
village and then left him.

We have often found the tracks of leopards
and lions which have been near our camp in
the night, and we know of lions that have
passed right by our tent without waking us.
But it took this little, stray, half-dead cur to
give us the scare of our lives.

CHAPTER IX
KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA

HAVING these men from the Kassai Co., we
were compelled to move on Sunday, as the men
would not rest with us on the road.

We held a service in the village in the morn-
ing and ate our lunch before starting, as we
had but a few miles to make. We had services
in three more villages on the way, and finally
came to the large Chokwe village under the
chief Kafuchi.

Here we were soon surrounded by scores
of natives, and the place fairly swarmed with
children. We have seldom ever seen so many
children in any one village. Our carriers put
down their loads and learning that Kafuchi
was not at home, and there being thus no
formalities to delay us, I began to sing and we
had a service at once. The effect reminded us
of Paul at Athens where "all the Athenians
and strangers which were there spent their
time in nothing else, but either to tell or to
hear some new thing."

So these people gathered around us with

114

KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA 115

somewhat the same words as those old Athe-
nians, "What will these babblers say?" Some,
"He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange
gods." Some, "May we know what this new
doctrine whereof thou speakest, is?" Two
young men clad in tennis flannels and smart
tan shoes, hatted and coated throughout in
Brussels garments, given to them doubtless by
some fond master on his departure for his
native land, announced haughtily as they
fingered their rosaries, "We are already Chris-
tians and have no need of your preaching."

What a motley crowd it was! The service
lasted about an hour, as I had several of my
boys testify to what God had done for them.
Then as we arose the crowd broke up and we
went on our way two miles to the Kassai Co.
factory. As we left, "some mocked, and others
said, We will hear thee again on this matter."
Pioneer preaching in heathen countries has
not changed so very much from Paul's day to
this.

At the factory we met the Chef du Secteur,
M. Lefevre, a worthy gentleman who spoke
English fluently and who was very glad to wel-
come us and give us all the assistance in his
power.

From him we learned the methods of admin-

116 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

istration of the Kassai Co., which had then
about two hundred factories, mostly along the
Kassai and Lulua Eivers and their adjoining
districts.

These factories are grouped into districts
over which there is a superintendent whose
business it is to see that every man and every
factory under him comes up to the mark. He
travels almost continually, and arrives at a
station often unexpectedly, when he examines
the books and goes into every matter of detail
of that station.

As was said previously, there are at least
two men for every station, and each of these
men makes very minute reports at the end of
each month, each quarter, and each half year,
and then again an annual report. There is to
be no loafing on any of these stations. The men
are supposed to start work at six in the morn-
ing and keep busy until six o'clock at night,
unless sick in bed with fever. No white man
is supposed to report less than one ton of
rubber bought per month, while at some of the
better situated stores they can get five tons
a month. And if there is the least falling off
in the purchases, a man is called strictly to
account.

As the Chef du Secteur travels about he

KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA 117

stops at every village or native town and calls
for the chief. He makes the chief a good pres-
ent and then asks him if he has any complaints
to make either of the treatment of the native
capitas in the employ of the Kassai Co. or of
the white men at the nearest station. Any
such complaints are thoroughly investigated
and justice meted out to the villages for any
injuries sustained.

If any of the villages have fallen off in sup-
plying rubber, the Chef du Secteur gives addi-
tional presents to the chief to encourage him
to "make" or gather more rubber, also as com-
pensation for sending his young men to act as
carriers in the transport.

At that time there were, as we said, over two
hundred factories of the Kassai Co., extending
from Stanley Pool to the Congo-Zambesi
divide, a distance of about eight hundred
miles. They had an average of three white
men and five native buyers to each of these
factories. In some sections the rubber was
so plentiful and the population so thick that
the factories were only two miles apart, and
the men on these stations were kept busy buy-
ing rubber from morning till night.

Each factory served as a transport station
to the next factory and there its responsibility

118 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

ceased. The receiving station then must see
that the loads were forwarded to the next one
beyond it and thus a perfect system of trans-
port had been worked out and one that could
be operated at a minimum of cost.

We were greatly impressed with the effi-
ciency and thoroughness of the organization
and conduct of the whole industry from a busi-
ness standpoint. There are certain regrettable
features about it from another point of view,
some of which may be mentioned later.

On this trip we visited eight of the Kassai
Co. stores or factories, and talked with the
natives in many of the villages between, and
although the natives complained bitterly about
certain other agencies, we can truthfully
record that we did not hear a single complaint
against the Kassai Co. as to any financial
dealings between them.

As to the missions in the area covered by the
Kassai Co., while there were a few Catholic
stations, there were only the three mission
stations of the Southern Presbyterian Church
near Luebo, as far as we could learn. The
company trades for rubber with several tribes,
some of which were cannibal, where no mis-
sionaries of any denomination had yet come.

In accordance with the custom of the com-

KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA 119

pany, the men who had brought us from Kim-
puki turned back from Kafuchi. As a rule,
no amount of persuasion or pay can induce the
men who are accustomed to travel over one
section to go on to another.

Mr. Lefevre at once sent word to the chief
Kafuchi that he wanted twelve men, and the
next morning they appeared and were assigned
to our loads to go with us to Mwata Yamvo.
For the Kassai Co. has not only a monopoly
on the trading of rubber in their territory, but
also on the transport and available labor
supply, owing to their generous gifts to the
native chiefs and their needs for such large
numbers of carriers. This does not apply to
Mwata Yamvo himself and his neighborhood.

As the Kassai Co. paid the carriers and gave
them salt with which to buy their food — charg-
ing the amount in our bill — we had no re-
sponsibility for feeding these carriers, which
was a great relief to me.

On arriving at a village, the business of food
was taken up at once, and the men ordered the
women to cook them a dish of food. When
they finally got their plates with the mush
neatly rounded into a large ball on each, and
accompanied by a little dish of beans, mush-
rooms, caterpillars, or some other relish, the

120 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

men would protest that they were being robbed
outright, and the women would stoutly assure
them that it was practically a gift anyway
considering the little they had paid for it. The
conversations were frequently prolonged and
heated and compliments of a negative charac-
ter passed freely, but we learned that there
were really no hard feelings on either side.
These side remarks were but the spice of the
deal.

We had an interesting sidelight on human
nature about this time in connection with our
own boys, six of whom were with us. From
Kimpuki we had been able to get sufficient
carriers so as to relieve them of their loads
and keep them fresh to take up the work of
the camp when we halted. So they were hav-
ing a remarkably easy time. In addition to
that, as we found fowls very cheap in two or
three villages, we decided on Sunday and on
one or two other occasions, to give them a treat
of chickens instead of the relish they were
accustomed to have.

The results were disastrous. The high liv-
ing and easy time seemed to set them up and
they began to neglect their camp duties and
grumble and growl all the time. If I gave
them chickens one day, they made a big row

KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA 121

if they did not have them the next. I noticed
that if I gave them any especial favors or deli-
cacies, I was sure to have trouble within less
than twenty-four hours. So after one or two
such occasions, I took them aside one evening
and reviewed the whole matter and told them
that if I had another such fuss after I had
done something kind for them all such favors
would be strictly cut off.

The second day out we came to the trading
store at Pesha, a sub-station of Kapanga, most
unfortunately situated on low, unhealthy
ground, with few natives in the vicinity. Here
we met the agent in charge at Kapanga who
was out assisting M. Lefevre.

He had been fifteen years in the Congo and
was accompanied by his half-caste daughter,
who was about twelve years of age. She was
dressed neatly in European clothing, which he
had brought from Belgium for her the year
previously.

Here is one of the unfortunate and deplor-
able features of the Kassai Co. They prefer
to employ single men, but in no case will they
let any of their employees take their white
wives out to Africa. In building a post, or
factory, a small hut is nearly always erected
near the residence of the agent for his native

122 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

mistress, and though there were some who did
not take a black woman, the majority of them
did.

Unfortunately this practice of having native
concubines is not confined solely to the agents
of the Kassai Co., but is all too general a cus-
tom all over Africa. The small birthrate
resulting from such cohabitation is due to the
means the native women take to prevent
progeny.

Mr. Vanderveld's little girl was well man-
nered withal and our hearts ached for her
future. There seemed to be a strong attach-
ment between the father and child, though he
referred to the mother several times as his
"nigger," an unattractive woman who we
learned has been passed on from one white
man to another.

He was then thinking of leaving the Congo
soon on account of his health and the child
would be left without a protector. We parted
from him not expecting to see him again, as
he had planned to make a month's tour in an-
other direction. But he was destined to change
all his plans and we did meet him once more.

The next morning we met quite a number of
native soldiers preceding their Chef du Poste
who was out gathering taxes. Several seemed

KAFUCHI TO MUSUMBA 123

inclined to jostle insolently against Mrs.
Springer, and one or two of them tried to com-
pel us both to get out of their way and give
them the whole path. I stood my ground,
letting them understand that I would not take
their insolent orders. When the Chef came
up he was very pleasant and wrote a note to
his assistant to give me any help, or a house if
I wanted it, so long as I cared to remain. Na-
tive soldiers, whether Belgian or British, are
very apt to be bullies and very offensive both
to blacks and whites.

On this section we saw more evidences of
wild game than we had in any other part of
this journey. The country from Kafuchi to
Kapanga was very broken, reminding us of
parts of New England. The rivers were
parallel to each other, all flowing north, and
were from one to five miles apart. The rivers
marked the same altitude as Lukoshi, but the
ridges about three hundred feet higher. Luko-
shi was thirty-five hundred feet above sea-level.

These ridges consisted of the same rich red
clay soil that we have on our industrial mis-
sion farm at Old Umtali, and we were im-
pressed with the promise of this country here
for European occupation and farming. The
natives do not like the red clay for farming,

124 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

as it is too hard to work with native hoes. But
it is the ideal thing for Europeans who can
cultivate the soil with cattle and machinery.

We were also now out of the tsetse fly belt
and found that many of the natives owned
oxen. Indeed, in some of the villages there
were a goodly number of cattle to be seen.
The natives have never worked nor milked
their cattle, but they can be trained to do both.

CHAPTER X

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO, THE
CAPITAL OF MWATA YAMVO

A HALF mile from the capital, just as we
crossed the last stream, a young man clad in a
white helmet, checked vest, and dark blue loin
cloth, came out to welcome us to the Chiefs
town. How he could have known of our com-
ing is one of those mysteries which never cease
to perplex white men. Probably some messen-
ger had slipped away from the village where
we had eaten lunch six miles away and had
notified the chief that an unknown white man
and white woman were on the road.

But no European courtier could have wel-
comed us with more grace than this Lunda in
the three-piece costume. The helmet was worn
as an official badge after the mode Belgique.
We learned before we left the town that this
youth, Mbanzi, had the chief care of the king's
harem.

Just outside the outer wall of the town,
Mwata Yamvo himself advanced to meet us
and to lead us to his own court, where he was

125

126 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

living in an excellent European tent which
had been imported for him by the Kassai Co.
In front of the tent were two or three folding
chairs and a folding camp table. One of the
chairs was draped with a fine leopard skin,
while a lion skin was stretched out on the
ground in front of it. Mwata Yamvo seated
himself in that after we had taken the other
two chairs. The leopard skin pertains to
royalty among the Alunda.

The Chief was dressed in two white duck
coats and a voluminous loin cloth. He wore
an elaborate beaded head-dress most beauti-
fully done, a genuine ornament worthy of a
paramount chief. His wrists and ankles were
loaded with bracelets, the use of which we were
to learn later.

The Chief spoke to an attendant, handing
him his bunch of keys, and very shortly he
brought a bottle of champagne and glasses. We
thanked the Chief most cordially, but declined
to let him open it for us. Thinking that we
did not like that particular drink, the Chief
ordered port wine and that was brought. This
we also refused, and in perplexity he offered
his own favorite drink, palm wine. At last
we succeeded in assuring him that we took
nothing stronger than water, which was

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO 127

brought in a large white stoneware pitcher.
The Chief then offered me cigarettes which, of
course, I also declined with profuse thanks,
and then I had Jacob explain to the Chief that
this particular breed of a white man, the likes
of which he had never seen before, neither
drank alcoholic liquors nor smoked tobacco.
The Chief took Jacob aside a few days later
and said in explanation of his offers at this
time that he had had a visit from a Catholic
priest only the week before we came and that
he had accepted both wine and cigarettes.

As soon as we had had refreshments, the
Chief said most courteously that he was de-
lighted to have us as his guests and that he
would show us where wre could pitch our tent
and make ourselves as comfortable as possible.
He said that he was very sorry not to have a
house to place at our disposal, but he had been
on his present site only two months and did
not even have his own house finished, but, as
we could see, had to live in a tent himself. He
said that he had a guest house building, and
that if we would remain until it was done he
would be very glad to put it at our service.

He led the way to show us where we were
to camp in the compound next to his own, and
as we advanced Mrs. Springer fell back some

128 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

paces with the little black box which she car-
ried innocently under her arm. A half hour
later, as she snapped a group of the royal
harem, the click of the shutter called 'their
attention to it and immediately the \vord went
round that this was a camera and that the
white woman was taking photos. These girls
were used to camera work by the Belgians, for
whom they had posed many a time.

This was another one of our surprises. At
Kazembe's and all along the way we had seen
only the rawrest heathenism and the crudest
specimens of heathens. The whole atmosphere
had suddenly changed. Here was a chief show-
ing us as gracious hospitality as any monarch
in Europe could have done, for the grace of
hospitality does not consist in the amount one
has to offer, but in the manner in which it is
given.

We found here a true metropolitan air. The
natives in this town no longer marveled at the
wonderful things possessed by the white man,
for they were used to them. The town had
been for six years within a short distance of
both the government post at Kapanga and the
Kassai Co. factory, and these two places alone
had some six white men connected with them
more or less permanently, besides many tran-

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO 129

sients, and then there had been the presence of
the Forminiere prospectors. So that the in-
mates of the capital were well sophisticated
along many occidental lines — too much so.

The carriers whom I got from Mr. Lefevre
insisted that they must go right on that day
to the Kassai Co. store, and so, leaving Mrs.
Springer to supervise the erection of the tent
and get settled for the night, I had to go on
six miles with these men, or what was seven
and a half by the route I took via the govern-
ment Poste.

There were three centers here, Musumba, or
the capital of Mwata Yamvo; Kapanga, the
government Poste six miles to the southwest;
and Mwini Kapanga, the store .or factory of
the Kassai Co., a mile and a half north of the
government Poste, but only six miles from
Musumba by a direct route.

At the government Poste, I met M. Vermees,
a young lieutenant, a most amiable and viva-
cious young man on whom the responsibilities
of life and government would never weigh too
heavily. He lamented that his rations were
six months overdue and so he could not offer
me any wine, therefore he accompanied me to
the Kassai Co. store and did full justice to the
wine offered there.

130 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

At the Kassai Co. store, where I met Mr.
Till, a Luxemburger, I saw a large amount
of wine in huge demijohns, which were to be
presents to Mwata Yamvo, a certain amount
being furnished him each month as an ac-
knowledgment of his services in supplying
them carriers and as an inducement to keep
on doing the same.

I did not get back to the tent until quite
dark, when I found that the Chief had sent
me a goat as a present, which I had killed and,
as is customary, sent him a hind quarter. The
next day I sent him a blanket that I had
brought, a gorgeous one with a bright purple
ground dotted with leopard spots.

That evening I took Jacob and went into
the Chief's compound to see him and to tell
him that I wanted twelve carriers to go on
with me in two days' time. He said that he
could not possibly consent to our making so
short a visit and that we must stay with him
at least six days.

This reminds we that I have not yet given
the plan of Mwata Yamvo's town, which was
different from anything we had ever seen. It
was rectangular, six hundred paces long by
four hundred wide. When I first found how
perfectly it was squared and how it wras

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO 131

divided into sixteen different courts or com-
pounds on the inside, I concluded that he had
had some European assistance in laying it out.

But both his own men and later Mr. Ver-
mees told me that he had laid it out without
any European help whatever. Some time after
I found in Livingstone's notes, written in 1854,
a description of the town of Mwata Yamvo,
given him by the natives as he crossed a corner
of the Lunda country, and I found that it
tallied very well with this. Evidently this is
the style of town which has been used for the
capital of Mwata Yamvo for about a hundred
years. These courts were all divided by fences
eight to ten feet high, and made opaque by
binding on grass or boughs of trees.

The nights were very cold at this season;
the mornings and evenings were also very
chilly, but the days were very hot owing to
our having no shade until afternoon. The tent
was suffocatingly hot until late in the after-
noon when the shadow of the fence fell upon
it. At noon we sought the shadow of the hut
of two or three of the Chief's favorite wives in
which to eat our noonday meal. At one o'clock
there was shade enough by our fence in front
of the tent.

Had we come two or three months later, we

132 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

might have been very comfortable in the guest
house, but our ten days at this time without
shelter or any privacy whatever made our stay
in many respects very unpleasant in spite of
all the Chief's desire to make us comfortable.

The next day was Sunday. The Chief, as
was his custom, departed about ten o'clock
for an official visit to the government Poste
to which he carried a large present of native
meal, a goat, some fowls, etc. Of course he
received a present in return covering its full
value, often in francs, but he was required to
make this contribution weekly and he always
made the trip on Sunday unless ill or otherwise
detained. He was escorted out of the town
by the big drum which preceded him, and a
large body of retainers followed the machilla
in which he was carried.

We had a large crowd at the service held
early in the morning and at another that eve-
ning and we held several smaller services
during the day, the Chief being present at the
one held about sundown. On the part of the
Chief and of all his people there was a marked
appreciation of the fact that the services were
all in Luunda, their native tongue, the hymns,
the speech, and everything connected with the
service. The Catholic who had been there but

THE CHIEF GOING FOR His OFFICIAL VISIT TO THE POSTE
MWATA WAS PRESENT AT THE EVENING SERVICE

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO 133

two weeks before our arrival was the only
other missionary that they had ever seen, and
neither he nor anyone with him could speak
the Luunda. This was one of the strongest
reasons why Mwata Yamvo and his people
favored our Mission from the very first.

While we were at breakfast — and by the by,
it was a very slim one, as we had not been able
to take much from Lukoshi and could not buy
any European provisions on the way, so that
we had been reduced largely to native food — a
messenger came with a letter. We had heard
at Kafuchi that there was an American pros-
pector named Young not far from Kapanga,
and on Saturday I had written him a note say-
ing that we were at Musumba and trusted that
he might find it convenient to come over and
meet us, as he wras but twelve miles away. Mr.
Vermees told me that he was in the habit of
sending Mr. Young two bottles of milk a day
and that the same boy would take my note.

Mr. Vermees had now forwarded the reply
to me. Mr. Young expressed a strong wish to
meet both Mrs. Springer and myself, but as
he was collecting a caravan and had some of
the men there, he dared not leave them and
come over to us. Would we not, therefore,
come to see him? He was expecting to leave

134 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

on Wednesday morning for good, so that if we
could, he wished us to come Monday.

So I sent Jacob to Mwata Yamvo asking if
he could give me eight men to go with us and
come back on the morrow. He had them there
inside of an hour and we were delighted with
the four assigned to Mrs. Springer's machilla.
These men had been trained for this very kind
of carrying in the Kassai Co. and two of them
could carry for miles without changing.

Passing the government station that morn-
ing, Mr. Vermees again regretted that he had
no refreshments to offer us unless — here a
sudden thought struck him — unless we would
accept a ripe pawpaw. Wouldn't we ! So two
large, luscious pawpaws were brought out and
we enjoyed them as only those who have been
deprived of fruit for years can do. The idea
that all parts of Africa abound in bananas and
other tropical fruits is one of the greatest and
most persistent fallacies. Throughout thou-
sands of square miles of Central Africa the
natives raise no fruit at all and where they do
it is in small quantities.

Just beyond the government Poste, we came
to the village of the chief Kapanga for which
the poste is named, a village second in impor-
tance to Musumba. Here we were surrounded

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO 135

by admiring groups of women also. For while
white men were a common enough sight, Mrs.
Springer was the first white woman to visit
this region. We secured our ferryman and
proceeded to the Lulua River, where we were
ferried across in a large and commodious dug-
out. The river at this point was exactly three
thousand feet above sea-level and some three
hundred feet in width. In the rainy season
it covered the flat lands on either side until
it was a half mile to a mile in width.

There were plenty of fish to be caught in the
river, and also plenty of hippopotami. We
saw their spoor on the river banks. Both the
white men and the natives were able to shoot
some of these mammoth creatures from time
to time. Fortunately we saw none of them in
our several crossings of the Lulua at this time.
They are dangerous animals, accustomed to
charge on native canoes.

On the other side, our path followed up the
river for about three miles, and two miles be-
yond we came to the small station, or depot,
of the Forminiere Co., where we were most
heartily welcomed by a man who had not seen
a white woman for two years, an Englishman
who had been naturalized in the United States.

Mr. Young served the inevitable and most

136 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

acceptable tea on our arrival and regretted
that the delay of his own "chop boxes," three
months overdue, prevented his giving us what
he called a good dinner. But after weeks of
subsisting almost entirely on sour mush and
native fowls, his roast pigeon, carrots, tinned
beans, and, last but not least, plum pudding,
was a feast fit for kings. Most of all, we en-
joyed eating bread once more. There is noth-
ing we miss more when obliged to do without
our accustomed food than bread. And when
we have bread we hardly mind any other lack.

We learned from Mr. Young that evening
that he represented a concession known as
the Forminiere, a term condensing the French
for Forests and Mines. This is an American-
Belgian Company in which the Ryan combina-
tion of capitalists is largely interested. The
company had been given three large conces-
sions by King Leopold. This one was bounded
by the Lulua River on the east and the Kassai
and Kwango Rivers on the west, giving the
company the exclusive right to prospect for
minerals for a certain number of years. As
the concession would expire in a year, the com-
pany was seeking to have this section thor-
oughly prospected this year.

Two other Americans were prospecting to

MUSUMBA WA MWATA YAMVO 137

the south, and we had the pleasure of meeting
them later on.

Mr. Young had spent most of his time to
the north in quest of diamonds and we saw
two small bottles of diamonds which he had
found. We learned much from him of sections
of country hitherto untouched by white men,
some among the fierce cannibal tribes to the
north. We were impressed, in meeting him
and later his two companions, with the hard-
ships they had had to undergo in their work
of seeking out the mineral 'wealth of this dark
continent.

In the small house used as a store depot we
saw shovels, picks, drills, forges, tackle for
windlass, tents, and outfits that had been
brought here at great expense. In comparison,
our entire outfit for mission work was insig-
nificant, arid once again we had impressed
upon us the greater and readier resources of
all secular agencies in Africa.

In a great deal of this mining work the
funds were not supplied by men of wealth, but
by the common people. Too often these gener-
ous supplies represent the hard earned moneys
of comparatively poor people, who have had
their imaginations inflamed with the prospect
of getting rich quickly and have given their

138 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

savings of years, never to see them again. It
is strange how generous and credulous people
become when they think there will be a per-
sonal profit in the end. Could we but have a
tithe of the money that has come from Meth-
odist pockets and has been wasted in mining
or so-called mining operations, our own Mis-
sion could flourish.

We had used up the very last of our flour
the morning that we went to see Mr. Young,
and had practically nothing else in the way of
European provisions. We were concerned
about the return trip, as Mrs. Springer was
nearly ill from eating sour mush, and there
was no hope of getting anything at the Kassai
Co. stores.

But Mr. Young, with a rare spirit of hos-
pitality and probably prompted by his own
experience of being short on the veldt when
transport facilities failed to connect him with
the liberal provision cases sent him by his com-
pany, made repeated and pointed inquiries as
to our supplies until he learned the situation.
He then insisted on our taking one twenty-
eight-pound case of flour, an assortment o£
tinned meat, and pickles enough to take us
back to Lukoshi, a true God-send to us.

CHAPTER XI

AT MUSUMBA

(Continued)

ANOTHER evidence of the thoughtfulness of
Mr. Young was seen the next morning as our
tent was being taken down and our things
packed for leaving. He called me into the
house and asked me privately if I had enough
money to see me back to Lukoshi.

I replied that I was quite sure that I had
plenty of cash for the remainder of the trip
home.

"Well," said he, "I have quite a bit of loose
cash that I do not need, as I am going right out
onto the veldt where there will be no oppor-
tunity to spend money in any case, and you
are quite welcome to take it if you like."

Now I have found that it is never well to
refuse money when it is offered and I have
always had cause to regret it sooner or later
if I did so. The thought came to my mind that
this might be a provision for some unknown
need that might soon arise.

"But," I replied, "how could I get the money

139

140 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

back to you? There is no direct connection
between Lukoshi and Kapanga and, as you
know, there is not even a mail route." For at
that time the government had no mail route
from Kapanga in any direction. The Kassai
Co. received and forwarded mail to the north
and out by the mouth of the Congo.

"That is all right," said Mr. Young. "You
can send a check to my banking account in
England."

"In that case," I answered, "I will be very
glad to take what you wish to spare. How
much will that be?"

"I can easily let you have five hundred
francs," he replied. That is about one hun-
dred dollars.

So I took the cash, all in specie, weighing
several pounds. And though it is a very un-
usual thing for me, I entirely forgot to give
him a receipt for it, and I am certain that the
thought of a receipt never entered his mind
either. It was one of the most remarkable
incidents that have occurred to me in Africa.

After breakfast we bade farewell to this
man whom we had seen for the first time but
the day before and whom we might never see
again, and yet toward whom we had already
felt a genuine affection as of one belonging to

AT MUSUMBA 141

our own kith and kin, and moved on back
down the river toward Musumba.

On our way we met the lad from the Poste
with his bottles of milk which he was taking to
Mr. Young. We found on reaching the Lulua
that this youth had crossed the river in the
ferry canoe and had hidden the paddles some-
where in the grass so cleverly that no amount
of searching on our part revealed them.

We shouted across the river and after a long
time induced the ferryman to come over in an
old canoe that had its sides all plastered up
with clay. He hunted for the paddles, but
finally left the old canoe and took us over in
the good one. It was thus past noon when we
reached the Poste and Mr. Vermees would not
hear of our going on without something to eat.
He said that he had nothing fit to set before
us, but what he had would at least keep us
from going away hungry.

The government Poste was nearly a mile
from Kapanga's town and was beautifully
situated on the highest rise of land in that
vicinity. One came up a broad path with large
gardens of the tall, graceful cassava on either
side. The soil was of the rich, red clay before
mentioned, and the cassava gardens were well
set off by their terra cotta background.

142 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

The Poste itself had at that time three large
burnt-brick residences for its officers, and
numerous other buildings. Flower beds, paw-
paw, and lemon trees and bananas were
arranged to give a parklike appearance. From
the main residences one could look over the
valley to where the Lulua River, a mile away,
gleamed like a wide silver ribbon in the sun.

They had a herd of about fifty cattle, and so
had all the milk they needed for their own use
besides supplying Mr. Young and the Kassai
Co. as well. They made their own butter, no
small item when tinned butter cost fully two
dollars a pound.

Our lunch that day consisted of fried sweet
potatoes, fried plantains, fried eggs, and
coffee with fresh milk in it. Mr. Vermees had
no bread, as his flour was all exhausted, though
he said that he was expecting his "chop boxes,"
meaning provisions, every day and had been
for months.

He had a large amount of coffee, which had
been brought by him from Matadi. This coffee,
which has a very excellent flavor, grows wild
on the lower Congo, below Boma. He insisted
on giving us several pounds, which we roasted
and used on reaching home, and we greatly
regretted when we had used the last of it that

AT MUSUMBA 143

we could not get more of the same flavor and
quality. For the journey home we were glad
for the tin of roasted, ground coffee (also for
a pound of tea) given us by Mr. Young.

It was nearly sunset when we reached
Mwata Yamvo's, and as we entered the town
a crowd of people numbering at least four
hundred gathered around us and welcomed us
back. We held a service at once while we had
them all together, and the picture of that
heathen crowd gathered around us just as the
last rays of the setting sun touched up the
court and finally died away was one we shall
never forget.

Our two days of absence had worked out
well. I had left Jacob behind with instruc-
tions to gather all the information possible.
On our return I found that the Chief had used
this opportunity to get all the information he
could out of Jacob. He had sent for Jacob
two or three times and asked him all sorts of
questions concerning us, what we did with our
boys, whether we abused them or oppressed
them, and what we taught them. He could
converse with Jacob in the Luunda and this
mightily pleased him.

He was particularly interested in the story
of the atonement and asked Jacob many in-

144 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO ,

telligent questions about it. Then the next day
he had called for Jacob and requested him to
tell the story over again. He seemed to realize
what would be involved if he accepted Christ
but so far has not taken the step. But he was
sure of one thing at the end of those two days
— that he wanted a missionary to come and
live among and teach his people. And when
I went to see him the next day, he said that
he wanted especially a medical missionary.

This Mwata Yamvo had now been ruling for
about five years, which coincided approxi-
mately with the time in which the Government
had taken over the administration from the
Kassai Co. At the time of his accession they
found tribal matters were in a rather chaotic
state owing to the advance of the Bachokwe
and the intrigues of the aspirants for the
Lunda throne.

After careful inquiry, the Government
learned that the present ruler was the one
really acknowledged to be the next in succes-
sion, though he was held practically as a
prisoner by one of the larger Chokwe chiefs
near the Congo-Zambesi border, not more than
one hundred miles west of Lukoshi.

They had procured his freedom and he had
chosen the site for his capital a mile north

AT MUSUMBA 145

of the present one. This was before the Gov-
ernment established a Poste at Kapanga.
When they did so they required the Chief to
move to within a mile of them and he had lived
there for five years.

But he had had no end of trouble with the
native soldiers employed by the Government,
and had asked repeatedly to be allowed to
move further away, until at last the request
had been granted, and two months previously,
at the close of the rainy season, he had come
to his present site.

The policy of this Government, as with the
British Government in Rhodesia, is to admin-
ister the country as far as possible through
the paramount chiefs when there are such.
Thus Mwata Yamvo was not merely a figure-
head, but a man of no little responsibility. He
had native soldiers of his own, and one of the
first buildings to be completed in his town,
even before his own residence, was a jail. He
was judge of the supreme court, dealing with
a large number of native cases.

He had a considerable income, too. He had
five per cent commission on all the rubber that
was brought to the Kapanga store of the
Kassai Co., and sixty centimes, or twelve cents
of our money, for each carrier supplied to any

146 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

and all parties. Mr. Vanderveld told us that
Mwata Yamvo had supplied the company with
no less than two thousand carriers during the
previous January and February.

He had the entire control of the carriers in
his kingdom, particularly in the region near
his capital. No one else could get carriers in
a native village. They must be obtained
through the Chief.

At present there were four parties of us
asking for carriers: the Government wanted
one hundred to go to Dilolo ; the Store wanted
several hundred, but had a rush order for two
hundred; (the Chief du Secteur had fifty men
engaged for six months) ; Mr. Young was urg-
ing the delivery of the rest of the fifty he
required; and last and least, we wanted the
modest number of twelve to take us to Dilolo,
or at least to Katola, which was nearly half
way.

Mwata Yamvo's method of getting men was
this : he would send his messengers out to sub-
chiefs telling each how many men he required.
Sometimes they came and sometimes not.
When a call became urgent, he would send
one of his bracelets or anklets by the messen-
ger. This meant business.

On one occasion during our stay in his town,

AT MUSUMBA 147

a messenger returned and reported that a cer-
tain chief said that he could not supply the
men at present. Mwata Yamvo with an im-
patient gesture pulled off one of his bracelets,
handed it to the man, and told him to go and
bring with him the men required. And they
came, for they knew that if they did not, the
king's soldiers would come and trouble would
be brewing.

We found Mwata Yamvo to be a very busy,
hard-working monarch. He not only had the
task of sending out for carriers, receiving them
and assigning them to their respective duties,
but he had to sit almost daily on native cases
that were brought to him as the supreme judge.
Also he had about one hundred and fifty
natives at work building the town, and though
he had capable overseers all around, yet he had
to look after the work in general himself.

Pood was very scarce in the town, and it was
no easy matter to get enough of it for all of
his workmen, many of whom, by the way, came
from the Portuguese side of the Kassai. That
part of Angola was not administered by the
Portuguese and was another no-man's-la»nd so
far as European occupation was concerned.
But being Lunda people they acknowledged
Mwata Yamvo as their king and supplied the

148 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

workmen required for the building of his capi-
tal.

Now, as was said, it was difficult to get food
enough for this army, so Mwata Yamvo found
that he had to do as nearly all the white men
of the country have to do, and that is to give
out the rations himself to prevent waste.
About six o'clock the drum would sound and
we would see the men going by scores into the
next compound to ours and there they would
receive their rations for the following day.

There was a daily market held just outside
the north gate where native meal, dried fish,
meat, eggs, fowls, beans, potatoes, and sundry
other things were brought for sale, but there
was not an abundance and the prices were
high. Our boys complained continually of the
high prices even when I had greatly increased
their ration-funds, consisting of beads, salt,
needles, etc.

Mwata Yamvo had quite a herd of cattle,
also pigs, sheep, and goats. He did not milk
his cattle, much to our regret. Most of his
wives kept fowls, and he was keen on breeding
dogs, for which he could get a good price. He
had paid the sum of sixty dollars for one
beautiful shepherd dog brought from Belgium.
Her name was Antoinette, and the natives

AT MUSUMBA 149

called her Toneta. It is a decided novelty
among the natives to find a dog with a name.
There was another large male dog in the town,
which the Chief had bought from one of the
agents of the Kassai Co., but we did not learn
how much he had paid for him.

As has been said, Mwata Yamvo had a very
considerable revenue from the Kassai Co. and
from other sources, and as there were no other
stores in the country, the Kassai Co. saw to
it that Mwata Yamvo's wants were supplied.
They had sold him his tent and furniture,
his dishes, etc. Anything else that he saw and
fancied could be obtained through the Com-
pany. It was through them that he bought
all his champagne, wines, and other foreign
liquors. The presents he received from the
Forminier Company consisted of native cloth,
other trade goods, and cash.

The British have made a wise law which is
stringently carried out prohibiting the sale of
intoxicants to the natives. Colonel Harveld
tried to get the same law enacted for the
Katanga, but the Belgians claim that logically
if we are to recognize and establish full rights
for the native he should have equal privileges
with the white man, and if the white man
is allowed to buy liquor the native should not

150 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

be denied. There has been a sort of com-
promise relating to the large white town, pro-
hibiting the sale of distilled liquors, or any
containing over fifteen per cent of alcohol to
the natives, but as nearly every Kaffir store
is allowed to sell the milder liquors, the law
is practically nullified thereby. The "black
peril" of Africa is in almost every instance
traced to drunkenness from imbibing Euro-
pean liquors. It is the same thing that causes
the "white peril" in England or America.

On Thursday noon we were much surprised
to see a white man enter the compound and to
find that it was Mr. Vanderveld. He said
that he had been too ill to go on and complete
the journey he had planned and so was return-
ing to his station. He had a very yellow color,
refused to eat, and smoked cigarettes inces-
santly. He said that he proposed to settle up
his affairs and return to Belgium.

In the course of the conversation he said
that Mwata Yamvo had wished to buy his
pousse-pousse, or mono-cycle, and that he or
anyone else could have it for three hundred
francs, or sixty dollars, just what it had cost
him in Brussels. He had had it only a year
and had not used it much at that.

Now it happened that Mrs. Springer and I

AT MUSUMBA 151

had discussed the buying of such a mono-cycle
for her use for some weeks before leaving
Lukoshi. We had received a price list which
showed us that we could get one in England
or America for fifty dollars. We had talked
much about it and then had decided that by
the time it was shipped out it would cost us
fully three times that amount, and we could
not think of it.

When we had left Lukoshi for this trip, we
had left Jim behind to wait for the mail. He
had joined us after four days and among other
letters was one telling us that Mrs. Fox's
Sunday school class at Wessington Springs,
S. D. (the church from which our personal
support came, principally from three of its
members), had sent us a Christmas present of
fifty dollars and had sent it early, in order that
it might be in time. As this was the middle
of May, we decided that it was in time all
right.

Again the subject of the mono-cycle came
up, but we could see no light. When we had
seen Mr. Vanderveld's at Pesha our hopes had
been roused for a moment. I had asked him
casually how much they cost and if he had any
idea of selling, and he had replied promptly
that he had not. He told me then that they

152 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

cost sixty dollars in France where they were
made.

Now he had said that he would sell it to
anyone who would buy. After he went over
to his tent we talked it over and it seemed to
us as we recalled the Christmas gift and the
cash almost thrust upon me by Mr. Young
and then this direct offer of the very sort of
conveyance we desired as if it all were a direct
providence from the Lord and no mistake.

But I wanted to be sure that I would not be
forestalling the Chief, and I so remarked to
Mr. Vanderveld. He replied that I need not
trouble myself on that score, as Mr. Till also
had a mono-cycle that he would sell to the
Chief if he wanted it. That question being
settled, I paid down the three hundred francs
cash, and let Mr. Vanderveld use the mono-
cycle to his station, six miles away. As we
had to pass right through his station we could
pick it up there.

For several days we had been taking walks
in all directions to see if there were good sites
for a mission station. The veldt had been
newly burned and we deeply regretted that
our only chance for a bath on our return from
these explorations was in a small hand basin.

At last we decided on a certain site which

AT MUSUMBA 153

seemed to us the very best in that vicinity. We
conferred with the Chief and his head men
and they agreed that the site was a very good
one and perfectly satisfactory to them.

So the last day of our stay there I took Jacob
and some of the other boys out to the spot
we had chosen and I cut a cross on the only
large tree in that vicinity. I knew that very
likely I would not be able to come up there
when the station was built and I wanted Jacob
and some of the others to know the site decided
on with the Chief for the Mission. We got
back just in time to witness one of the most
interesting ceremonies we have ever seen in
Africa.

Hearing the call of the big drum and the
sound of many voices, we hurried into the
large court adjoining the one in which we were
staying and found the King beginning the
ceremony of installing a sub-chief.

The King, who is rather a fussy individual,
small of stature, and of nervous temperament,
was master of ceremonies. He was seated in
front of the large, double, national altar, pro-
totype of the altars found in practically every
village. These are made of many-pronged dead
trees with live posts in front. Red and white
clays are used in making fantastic decorations.

154 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

A table, or shelf, of poles receives votive offer-
ings. This altar is used chiefly for the pro-
pitiation of evil spirits.

The throne consisted of a large European
arm-chair over which was thrown a purple
blanket with black leopard spots, my gift to
Mwata Yamvo. In olden days all the lion and
leopard skins of the country belonged to the
King, and only he and his immediate family
could use them. Under his feet the King had
a large lion skin, and, as a robe of state, he
wore a beautiful blue and white blanket
draped about him like a Koman toga. In
addition to his every-day, elaborate head-dress
of bead work, he now had on an immense pom-
pom of scarlet feathers. Other members of
the royal family were seated on leopard skins,
each with a group of followers about. Fully
twenty fine leopard skins were in evidence.

At one side, between the King and the altar,
was the court musician with a large, fine-toned
native piano, and by his side another musician
with a big wooden drum. Each of these instru-
ments was played with two sticks on the ends
of which were balls of native rubber. The
players were men of skill, always interpreting
the everchanging mood of the crowd of five
hundred or more, from the low, rhythmic hand-

AT MUSUMBA 155

clapping to violent outbursts of native emo-
tion and impulse. There was constant and
informal coming and going throughout. No
hard and fast program hampered the free play
of impulse and the inspiration of the moment.

The exercises had begun with the entrance
of the King, followed by the orchestra, the deep
bass of the drum beating a slow and dignified
march. The entire assembly arose, picked up
dust and rubbed on their stomachs, and then
clapping their hands, chanted softly the
praises of the King, who proceeded to his
throne, all the others remaining standing until
he was seated. None of his subjects or family
occupied a chair, for among the Alunda no
commoner is allowed to sit on a chair in the
presence of an important chief.

The first business was to determine, if possi-
ble, who was responsible for the death of the
sub-chief whose place was about to be filled.
Since the Alunda are firm believers in witch-
craft, the reason for showing a clean slate, as
it were, is obvious. The King called on first
one chief and then another, and then on many
commoners, and each one repeated at length
about the same thing, namely, that So-and-so
was dead and that so far as they knew no one
there was responsible for his death. As each

156 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

chief finished, half chanting, dramatically, his
version of the case, he brought it to a climax
by rubbing white clay on one of his shoulders.
These recitals were interspersed by tableaux
acted by a grizzly chief clothed with several
wild cat and hyena skins, who, on entering,
had advanced from the gateway with big
jumps and yells, beating the ground in front
of him in stately fashion with an immense
club. The big stick, as a ceremony of state,
did not, therefore, originate in the United
States. We judged that this actor was driv-
ing all the devils out of the path of the man
who was advancing for his inauguration.

Having at last pronounced the verdict that
all present were guiltless of the chief's death,
every person present daubed the white clay
about the eyes, nose, and mouth and all over
their bodies until the assembly resembled a
mob of ghouls. White clay is the native symbol
for "not guilty."

Then the King asked for nominations, de-
spite the fact that he alone could nominate the
man, and as no one responded, he named the
man of his choice. From the moment the
white clay had been given out, shouts from
hundreds of voices, a rapid succession of gun
firing and the beating of drums on the outside

AT MUSUMBA 157

of the wall could be heard, so that everyone
knew that the triumphal procession was draw-
ing near. And now the crowd near the
entrance parted and a stately file of armed
men marched in with quick, warlike tread,
passed in front of the King, whom they
saluted, marched once around the big altar,
and then stood at arms to one side. Following
these was the candidate whom the King had
named and who was now ushered before the
King by the Man-with-the-Big-Stick with
enough flourishing of his badge of office, ges-
ticulations, and yells to have satisfied the most
enthusiastic American.

The candidate approached to within a few
paces of the King, where he dropped on his
knees, clapped his hands in obeisance, picked
up dust and rubbed it over his bared stomach,
and then, having received from the King the
command to approach, he half arose, then pros-
trated himself full length on the ground, touch-
ing his temples to the earth. He prostrated
himself first on one side of his body and then
on the other several times until, with this
abject homage, he reached the royal person.
Here, still kneeling, he received the badge of
office, a large, two-edged sword, some twenty
inches long, inclosed in a carved wooden scab-

158 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

bard with a belt of beaver fur. Slinging this
over his shoulder, he saluted the King by
touching his hand. He then heard the long
admonition delivered by Mwata Yamvo,
chanted his assent, and retired to a place near
his men in front of the King. The orchestra
roared, the vast audience howled, the women
shrieked in high pitched trills: the noise was
almost deafening.

The King gave one of his men an order and
he and the new chief disappeared inside the
hut at the rear of the altar. A few seconds
later, they reappeared, the new chief being
draped in an immense loin cloth sixteen yards
long and fifty inches wide.

The King then made a long speech and in
closing, spoke more truly, perhaps, than he
knew when he said, "We have been told by
the Missionary that we should live like men in
peace, not like animals, fighting and killing
each other. That is true. This is a new and
good day for us. God has sent his man [point-
ing to the writer] to teach us his words which
we will do well to hear and to heed."

Then began, evidently, the most enjoyable
part on the program. First the new sub-chief
and then many others stepped into the open
space before the King, took the unsheathed

AT MUSUMBA 159

sword and performed a fancy sword dance,
graceful but wild and barbaric. Each per-
formance received great applause, but when
Mwata Yamvo's twelve-year-old son, the heir
apparent, took his turn, the wildest enthu-
siasm prevailed.

It was now deep twilight and the King sud-
denly arose out of his place and strode off
toward his own house. The crowd also arose
like one man, hundreds of them closing around
the new chief, who was seized by his own men
and carried off triumphantly on their shoul-
ders to their village where the inaugural ball
was kept up all night.

It all occurred too late in the day to take
photographs, but we can see it still, that im-
mense company with their fantastic garbings
and groupings, the King on his throne with
his mother sitting on one side of him on a
leopard skin, and his sister on the other side
also on a leopard skin, and the wives, of whom
they said there were at least two hundred, and
his head-chiefs scattered about, all of them
before the great altar erected to the unknown
gods for whom they had only dread and fear —
then the sudden darkening of a tropical night
falling like a curtain over all. It was a repre-
sentative picture of heathenism as it really is.

CHAPTER XII
LEAVING MWATA YAMVO

THE importance of this capital town, from a
missionary point of view, had so grown upon
us in these ten days that we greatly regretted
leaving Mwata Yamvo. Had there been any
possible way for us to stay we certainly would
have done so. No other missionary situation
had ever so appealed to us, and in comparison
Kazembe's district on the Lukoshi was not to
be considered for a moment for strategic im-
portance. Mrs. Springer longed to stay and
work among the bright, and many of them
beautiful, young women who were there as
Mwata Yamvo's wives. No one knew exactly
how many wives he did have, but it was
rumored that there were at least two hundred.

These were divided roughly into different
classes and quartered accordingly in different
courts. The favorites were in the court in
which we were camped. They were mostly
the young and the best favored. Then those
whose first bloom had faded were in the next
court. Then in the outer court were the hope-

160

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 161

less-faced women, the discarded wives. We
were not there long enough to learn all the
particulars of harem life, but we learned
enough to know that the conditions were
horrible beyond description.

I repeat, leaving that town was one of the
hardest things we ever did. We lay awake
nights trying to study up some way by which
we might stay. We would gladly have sent
our boys back to Mr. Heinkel telling him that
he must come on up there with the things, as
we were not coming back. But it was utterly
impossible. At that time Kapanga was prac-
tically marooned except for the Kassai Co.,
and they were unable to get loads just then on
account of an outbreak of war with the Bateke
on the north. We found, as we said, the Gov-
ernment officials living largely on native food
and dependent on the graces of the Forminiere
for a small amount of trading goods, and this
too would be cut off with the early removal
of the depot.

So study the situation from any point of
the compass, we could not stay. And it was
evident that if our Mission were to occupy that
center in the future, we must have some trans-
port route opened from the Cape-to-Cairo Bail-
road.

162 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

True to his promise of Saturday, the Chief
brought us twelve carriers on Monday morn-
ing. They were the worst looking crowd that
we had ever seen, weak and underfed — prob-
ably a lot just received from some remote,
famine-stricken district. But we had to take
them, hoping for the best.

Mwata Yamvo bade us a cordial farewell,
urging us to come again and calling after
Jacob that he must be sure and bring his mis-
sionary back. Mbanzi went a mile with us and
turned back just beyond the second spruit. A
genuine friendship had sprung up between him
and Jacob. He was an able youth and we
could not but think that Jesus would have felt
toward him as he did toward the rich young
ruler. His position of trust to Mwata Yamvo
was one full of pitfalls and snares into which
he fell a year later.

I had pushed on with my bicycle to the store
and took over the mono-cycle. As it came out
Peter's eyes opened wide.

"Is that for the Missis?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied, "I have bought it for the
Missis."

"I know how to run it," he said proudly. It
was my turn to be astonished.

"Where did you learn?" I asked.

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 163

"O, I used to run Mr. Kipp's for Mm in
Angola. But Mr. Kipp's was a pickinin and
this is big. I go to get the Missis."

And off he started and met her a mile away
walking rather wearily. She had six carriers
on her machilla and the whole six had not been
able to carry her two miles. They had actually
laid her down in the path, refusing to lift the
machilla pole until she got out. When one
considers that two good machilla carriers
could have brought her every step of the six
miles, it is easy to see what worthless carriers
we had.

At the Kassai Company store I rationed
these men with salt for Katola, five days away.
They would buy their food in the villages with
the salt. This was the custom in dealing with
carriers.

Mr. Vanderveld said that he was no better
and that he was still unable to eat, but he was
up and at his work. Two weeks later he was
buried there at his station. When we heard
of it, we wrote to Mr. Lefevre and tried to get
the child, but found that she had already been
sent to some mission to the north, possibly the
Catholic.

While talking with Mr. Vanderveld, a man
came with bananas to sell. This was a rare

164 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

treat to us, and as he did not care to buy I
invested in the bunch of about two dozen.
They would be most acceptable on the trail.

We camped that night about fifteen miles
from Musumba and three miles beyond the
Forminiere camp from which Mr. Young had
already departed, leaving in charge a well-edu-
cated half-caste from French Guinea; a Mr.
Topp, who spoke both English and French
fluently.

The last four miles of the trail were very
bad and I had to walk nearly all the way, so
I was dismayed when we came into camp and
two men failed to report, one of them being
the man with the bananas. I could not wheel
back after them on account of the poor trail
and the lateness of the hour.

The next morning I found that all but two
of the others had slipped out in the night and
had gone, taking their salt with them.

The situation was serious. This little village
where we had stopped had been utterly
stripped of men to furnish carriers, and there
was nothing to do but to return to Mwata
Yamvo and get other men.

Leaving Mrs. Springer and our boys in the
village, I cycled back alone and reached
Mwata Yamvo about eleven o'clock. He and

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 165

his head men were sitting on a case and when
I reported the desertion of his men they spat
on the ground with disgust. But it was evi-
dent that they were not wholly surprised.

The Chief assured me that I could return
and when his workmen reported at noon, he
would have twelve of them follow me. I pre-
ferred the "bird in the hand" and so told him
that I was tired, and would wait and take the
men with me.

He called Mbanzi and told him to get me
something to eat. Mbanzi ordered one of the
Chiefs wives to cook me some food and in due
time I was served a good meal of roast chicken,
baked sweet potatoes, and tea with tinned milk
and sugar. I tipped her with some beads and
a half a franc, much to her satisfaction. She
was one of the wives that had most attracted
Mrs. Springer.

At 4 P. M. Mwata Yamvo brought the twelve
men and told them that they were to go to
Katola with us and that they were to see to it
that Katola gave us an equal number of men
to go on. But if he did not have them, they
must go to Dilolo with us themselves. He
gave each man an anklet so that each man
was individually responsible and individually
empowered to find a substitute for himself, a

166 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

clever ruse. I slept at Kapanga's village that
night and reached Mrs. Springer early the
next morning.

She told me that the previous forenoon, she
had heard a great outcry and found that one
of the two men who had not deserted in the
night had tried to run away, but had been
caught by the women of the village and
brought back. The women were furious with
him and two of them seized sticks and beat
the fellow until he begged most abjectly for
mercy.

"We will teach you a lesson," they cried
savagely, as they belabored him. "We will
teach you better than to desert in a village full
of women only. Do you wrant us to have to
carry your load on for you?" There were no
names too bad to apply to him as they danced
around him in perfect fury. One woman
kicked him and another pounded him with her
fists. They certainly beat him into subjection
and probably would have seriously injured
him had not Mrs. Springer interfered. He did
not dare attempt to escape again from that
village, though he did desert three days far-
ther on.

We paralleled the river and the next day
crossed eighteen streams in nineteen miles, a

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 167

record breaker. All along we were charmed
with the promise of the country for European
style of farming. We picked out the home-
stead sites in our mind's eye as we went along.
Here were beautiful, red clay ridges about
four hundred feet above the Lulua and high
above these cross streams. Some day, and
before many years, we feel that this stretch
of country will be dotted with brick farm
houses overlooking wide stretches along the
Lulua valley.

At one of these streams, the Mwinakadi, we
had a terrible time. A fire had swept through
the low land on the north side of the stream
where the* rushes had grown twelve or fifteen
feet high. The fire had not consumed the
reeds, but had matted them down so that in
one place we had to creep on our hands and
knees for some yards to get through. A large
grove of bananas had been planted here, but
being unprotected had now been killed out by
the grass fire.

Just north of Katola, we met Lieutenant
Hedo and his bicycle corps of native soldiers.
He was the first government official to go from
Elisabethville to Kapanga, which with the
surrounding district had but recently been
transferred to the Katanga province of the

168 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Congo. This was the beginning of the admin-
istration of this, now the Lulua District, from
Elisabethville. Lieutenant Hedo's was one of
three separate parties of bicycle corps at that
time exploring the whole Katanga.

There were twenty-five of these native
soldiers with Lieutenant Hedo, each having a
bicycle heavily loaded with kit, gun, and am-
munition, and nearly every one decorated with
one or more fowls gathered from the native
villages. In the rear we met three or four of
the soldiers carrying their smashed wheels on
their heads. A bicycle is fine so long as it
cycles, but when it does not it is a different
story.

On Saturday we reached Chibamba's village,
a mile from the Kassai Co.'s Katola store.
Our carriers showed their bracelets to Chi-
bamba and demanded carriers to take their
places.

"I want fourteen men to-morrow to carry
my loads to Dilolo," said I.

"My men are all gone now," said the chief.
"Fifty are with Lefevre, three have gone to
this place, five to another, eight to that place,
and they are all scattered."

It was true, as we learned later, that most
of his men were gone. But here was one more

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 169

white man, and this one had his wife, and in
some way he must take care of their loads and
get them along to the next stage.

That evening as we sat around the campfire
in the village, I stirred the chief up to a remi-
niscent mood purposely in order to get some
additional light on Lunda history. I had been
told that he was a son of a former king. Had
he known other Mwata Yamvos in the past?
The fire lit up his eyes beneath his grisly eye-
brows. Had he? And he named them over,
the ones that he had personally known, eight
in all, and in addition gave me the names of
eight more before his time, his father, he said,
having been the fifth in the line. Some of
them had reigned but a short time, others for
a number of years, but in nearly every case
the end had been a tragic one. He seemed to
think that as long as these assassinations were
confined to their own tribe they were insignifi-
cant.

"Were there more Alunda or fewer when
you were a young man than now?"

"Ah," said he with a wistful look and ardent
tone, "those were the good old days, indeed.
Then there were villages everywhere, gardens
were plenty, we had much food of all kinds,
herds of sheep, goats, and cattle, and plenty

170 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

of slaves and wives. Ah! Those were the
times in which to live! But now — " and he
spat on the ground in disgust.

"What has become of all the people?" I
asked. One of his ten wives spoke up quickly
and said tersely, "The Bachokwe."

.Then followed an account of raid aTter raid
by this tribe, who obtained firearms from the
Portuguese near the coast and thus had the
advantage over their more primitively armed
neighbors.

"But did not the Bachokwe originally be-
long to the Alunda?"

"Yes, they were of our own kin, but one of
the chiefs having a falling out with Mwata
Yamvo, stirred up a rebellion and fled to the
other side of the Kassai Kiver with his follow-
ing. There they gathered others to their band
and grew strong and years later came back
and raided us, seized our sons and daughters
and sold them for slaves."

"To-day you sell much rubber to the white
man ; did you gather and sell rubber when you
were a boy?"

"No. We sold goats, sheep, fowls and cattle
to the Portuguese trader and particularly
slaves. One slave for a yard of calico, five
slaves for a gun, although there have been

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 171

times when we have paid as high as forty
slaves for one gun."

"And where did you get all your slaves?"

"Why, to the east, the further interior. Of
course when there was a law case against a
man, or there was found any stranger unat-
tended or friendless, when there was a witch
trial or any such things we had a chance to
get slaves here in our own land. Mwaninga
(yes) those were good old days! But now" —
with a helpless gesture — "we can do nothing."

And so we had in epitome the history of tribe
after tribe. The Lunda people became power-
ful through the first Mwata Yamvo. He was
a Luba, a strong man who revolted against
his own chief and went among the few and
feeble Alunda and these he gathered around
him and by means of wars made them into a
powerful nation and made for himself an em-
pire. His warriors extended his borders while
the women made gardens and reared the chil-
dren. Slaves were the medium of exchange.
His name meant "the lord of death," signify-
ing his method of ruling.

An extended empire resulted and his sons
were set over the provinces to gather the
tribute and send it in to him year by year.
The chiefs gave themselves more and more to

172 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

luxury, drink, and women as the temporal
power increased, and the inevitable came to
pass at last when a fool had the chieftain-
ship; the enemies crossed the frontiers with
impunity, and the seceded Bachokwe dealt
deadly blows as they returned and swept right
through the empire from north to south, cut-
ting it in two. Thus the Bachokwe dealt
and the Alunda decreased in powder until the
arrival of the Belgians under the Kassai Co.,
when a strong check was put on the Bachokwe
and help given to the Alunda.

It is needless to say that the Bachokwe have
little love for any white man, and bitterly
resent the imposition of taxes laid upon them.

But to return to the subject in hand, the
necessity of our having carriers.

Chibamba said that while he acknowledged
his obligation to furnish carriers if he had
them, he had already given Mr. Lefevre fifty
carriers and that there were no more men
left in his town. The carriers did not accept
his word as final, and they swore that they
would not go another step, and that if he did
not obey the Chief's command his blood would
be upon his own head. The discussion waxed
warm between them.

On Sunday Jacob reported that the carriers

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 173

had taken advantage of my short absence from
the village and had left for Mwata Yamvo's.
I jumped on my wheel and caught up with
them after two or three miles and made them
come back. I told them they knew Mwata
Yarnvo's instructions, and that I did not pro-
pose to be left a second time without carriers.
They agreed to go on with me.

At daybreak the next morning I was awak-
ened by Jacob, who excitedly informed me that
all my carriers had gone. I bolted down the
path, but although I rode at breakneck speed
for about four miles, there was no trace of
them and I had to return. They evidently
knew that the chief, Chibamba, could furnish
the carriers and determined to force him to
do it.

,The chief still protested that he had no men,
but the agent of the Kassai Co., who knew
the local situation well, came down and con-
vinced the chief that he not only could but
must give us carriers. He really exerted him-
self now to get us men for the next day, but
when the morning came I had to go around
the village with one of his young men and
actually haul them out, some from under the
beds and other places of hiding. They came
laughing at having been caught, and so at last

174 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

we were able to move on, CMbamba going with
us until noon. From here to Lukoshi carriers
were a daily and hourly problem, and truly it
was a case of working our passage.

NOTE

"The Lunda people seem to have had some community
of origin with the Lua or Luba, whose range extends
between Lake Tanganyika and the Kassai, south of the
sixth parallel, S. Lat. This Luba-Lunda group of Bantu
peoples must have reached their first home on the south-
west coast of Tanganyika (Lukuga-Marungu) from the
north by traveling along the western side of the lake.
Then they extended in time across the Congo basin south
of the dense forest region.

"Their rise into prominence may have been contem-
poraneous with the English Renaissance — say between
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries — a period during
which there were notable Bantu migrations and found-
ings of states in (Central and) South Africa. First the
Bakuba, and later the Alunda arose as conquering and
ruling castes through skill in weapon-making, hunting,
and warfare. An individual here and there probably of
Hima (Gala) descent, would emerge from the crowd and,
by dint of courage, resource, inventiveness, or the obtain-
ing of better weapons, become a mighty hunter and thus
supply his people with food and adornments. Round
him a community would group itself, attracting other
communities till a kingdom or empire was founded. It
was thus the kingdoms of Uganda and Unyoro, of Kongo
and the Luba, Lunda and Kioko and other Bantu coun-
tries came into existence. No doubt this commencement
of Bantu state-building was a far-off echo of the Arab
invasions of North Central Africa and even of the

LEAVING MWATA YAMVO 175

European Renaissance. These movements, with their in-
troduction of a higher civilization and superior weapons,
affected the Hamites and Nilotic negroes, who, in turn,
reacted on the Bantu of the lake regions. According
to the researches of Torday, Carvalho and others, a Luba
prince seems to have infused the divine fire into the
Lunda or Bungo people (the word, Lunda, it may be
remarked, means "brother, friend, comrade" in the
southern Luba dialects). A Lunda adventurer settled
about three hundred years ago on the Kangombe plateau
in S. E. Angola, and from out of the Makosa tribe formed
the celebrated raiding tribe, Kioko or Chibokwe.

"The Mwata Yamvo, who, until the foundation of the
Congo Free State and the division of spheres of in-
fluence between it and Portugal was practically suzerain
over all the Lunda and many of the Luba peoples, is the
fourteenth in descent from the traditional founder of
this dynasty in the seventeenth century. At one time
the influence of this monarchy stretched as far to the
southeast as the lands of the Kazembe, east of Lake
Mweru, and as far west as the Kwango River and the
boundaries of Angola.

"About a hundred years ago a Lunda adventurer, at
the head of a hunting or raiding caravan, established
himself among the Bayaka on the Kwango River. Pre-
vious to this even a great trading race, the Imbangala,
had been formed in the valley of the middle Kwango by
a mixture of Lunda with less civilized people — probably
the cannibal and savage 'Jaggers' of Portuguese terri-
tory."— Sir Harry H. Johnston in "George Grenfell."

CHAPTER XIII
THROUGH DILOLO

ON the second we left the main trail to reach
the Forminiere Camp so as to meet the other
two Americans, Messrs. Johnson and McVey.
The trail was exceedingly rough and we passed
through seven deserted villages where there
had been a large native population. The na-
tives told us that some government officials
had been stealing cattle and that the people
had risen in rebellion and many had fled
across the Kassai into the hinterland of
Angola, where they would be undisturbed by
Europeans. They had left their villages and
gardens in the hope, evidently, of returning
after this Chokwe rebellion had subsided and
a change for the better had taken place.

The weariness caused by successive days of
watching the carriers brought on fever, and
we looked forward to reaching a white man's
camp where we could have a day of rest and
cheer. In this we were destined to be disap-
pointed, for on reaching Luernbe we were told
by the capita in charge that the two white men

170

THROUGH DILOLO 177

had been away from camp three weeks, but
were expected home at any time. I gave him
a note, and told him to send it at once, telling
his masters that we would go on to a certain
village the next night and of our route on to
Dilolo so that if possible we could meet some-
where on the way.

But we left the next morning without much
hope of seeing them. The next night as we
encamped a messenger arrived saying that his
masters were not far away, and hearing that
we were in the vicinity had sent him to find
us. I got on my wheel and went with the boy
and found them encamped three miles away.
They had made twenty-seven miles that day
in a desperate effort to reach us and could not
move their men any further that night, but
said they would be over to breakfast the next
morning.

Indeed, they were there before we were quite
dressed at the very break of dawn. They, like
ourselves, were a hard looking sight. Travel-
ing through the long grass, which cuts like a
knife, over burnt veld, and through dew-laden
vleis, soon reduces the best outfitted travelers
to the appearance of hobos.

But we cared not a whit for the looks of our
clothes. No one can express the mutual joy

178 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

of meeting our own countrymen in this seem-
ingly out-of-the-world place. These two men
had not seen a white woman for nearly two
years. As soon as they had received my note
they had hastily packed and, following their
compasses, for there was no direct trail, had
pushed their men toward the point where they
had hoped to intercept us. They said they
would have gone three times that distance out
of their way to see an English-speaking person
and especially a white woman.

We decided to celebrate the Fourth of July
together, although it was only the 29th of
June. We were nearly out of European food,
except for the flour Mr. Young had given and
one of the 57 varieties of pickles. And, by the
way, we will never forget the warm glow that
once came over us while traveling in one of
the most forsaken parts of the continent many,
many miles from white men or native villages,
when once we met about one hundred almost
nude carriers going to a far distant station,
and caught the sight of a familiar box whose
cheerful red letters proclaimed it to be "Heinz
Tomato Catsup." And along with it the "57
varieties" which brought up visions of street
car signs and bustling streets of a noisy
metropolis in which our minds traveled for

THROUGH DILOLO 179

the next few hours while our feet mechanically
slogged, slogged over the wildest wilds of
Africa.

Messrs. Johnson and McVey were prospect-
ing for gold, and the result of their work thus
far led them to be very sanguine about the
future of this section of country from a min-
ing point of view.

They were much concerned about our pro-
ject of going on south to Dilolo, since they had
been down there not long before when the
Chokwe rebellion broke forth, and had had to
leave in a hurry.

Coming one night about sundown to a
Chokwe village they had made their camp and
exchanged presents with the chief as usual.
All was most amicable when a messenger
arrived. The chief immediately came over and
told them that about two hundred and fifty
armed warriors would reach his town that
night, and that he could not possibly answer
for the lives of the white men if they were
caught there. These men were roused to the
highest pitch of insurrection by certain things
that had occurred and they would shoot the
first white men they saw regardless of who
they were. So the chief urged them to leave.

But before he had finished speaking the

180 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

carriers had tied up their loads and were off,
and there was nothing for Messrs. Johnson
and McVey to do but to follow. As a usual
thing the white man leads his caravan and it
is hard to get the carriers to keep up, but this
time it was reversed. These carriers, being
Alunda and not Chokwe, knew that the safety
of their own skins lay in getting as far away
as possible from that advancing Chokwe army,
so they took the lead, and all night long the
two white men had to race for all their legs
were worth, following the dim black objects
ahead.

The affair was not without its humorous
phase, though they were all too alarmed to see
any humor in it at the time. Shortly after
Johnson and McVey had reached this village,
a Kassai Co. man arrived also. This particu-
lar man had the reputation of being a dandy
of the first class. He always rode in his mono-
cycle or was carried in a machilla ; in fact, he
was practically never known to walk. It was
Mr. Lefevre who said of him, "He always
comes into camp absolutely immaculate. I do
not know how he manages it, but he always
looks as if he had just come from his bath,
attired in spotless linen, shaved, and not a
hair displaced. The rest of us can never get

THROUGH DILOLO 181

the secret of being so spotless at all times, no
matter what the path is."

But when the summons came on this par-
ticular night, the Monsieur knew his fate if
he lagged behind, and so there was nothing
for it but to leg it also for a weary thirty miles
through the dark on the veld and certainly for
once in his life, at least, did not arrive at his
destination in an immaculate condition. He
told us later that he was stiff and footsore for
a week or more after that unusual bit of exer-
cise.

In view of their personal experiences, our
compatriots strongly advised us to turn due
east and abandon any attempt to go to Dilolo.

"You cannot go through the Chokwe coun-
try," they assured us, "even if you could get
carriers from Dilolo, which you surely will
not be able to do."

But while they had reason on their side, I
had engaged these carriers to go to Dilolo, and
I did not feel that I ought to turn aside in
another direction for any light reason.

Mrs. Springer was as strongly convinced as
myself that we should go on as we had started.
In the first place, to turn to the east over the
pathless veld would very likely mean that all
our carriers would desert us and that we

182 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

should be left in a very bad situation. From
that viewpoint alone, it seemed the better
policy to press on to Dilolo. But also, it was
important that we explore that section now
while we had the chance, so that we might
see the conditions there and know its mission-
ary possibilities for the future.

So bidding farewell to our friends, who, just
as they were packing up, found a plum pud-
ding— all they had left in their "chop boxes"
— and gave it to us in parting, we gained the
main path by noon and had covered twenty-
seven miles before we camped that night. My
wheel had been in a tery sullen mood for sev-
eral days now, and on this day I had been
thrown from it three times. Have you ever
noticed how a bicycle seems to take on a living
personality at times? How it loses its sem-
blance to a mere machine and acts as if im-
pelled by a thinking, acting brain? At such
times we are wont to speak of it as being
"possessed," and certainly mine had acted for
days as if possessed of an evil spirit. It played
up on me like a bucking bronco.

In the three days from here to Dilolo we
were on the Lulua-Kassai divide, which is
nearly four thousand feet above sea level, but
very swampy in places.

THROUGH DILOLO 183

We passed through several large Lunda vil-
lages. Just before reaching Dilolo, we went
through a very large settlement of ex-slaves
that the Belgians had freed from Angola na-
tives who had been raiding in the Congo.
These were settled under the protection of the
government Poste at Dilolo. Probably twenty
tribes were represented among them.

On the other side of the Poste, the simi-
lar settlements were predominantly Lunda.
Swarms of children busy at nothing but
heathen games were to be seen. What a
magnificent opportunity is lying neglected
here! The Benguella Kail way from Lobito
Bay to Chilongo will probably pass right by
Dilolo. What a great gain if we could reach
these towns before the advent of the railway
and its accompanying evil influences !

Mr. Classon, the agent of the Kassai Co.,
greeted us most cordially. He regretted that
his store was so nearly empty that he could
let us have only a small amount of trading
goods. The carriers from Kapanga would not
come to Dilolo on account of the rebellion, but
for that matter, Kapanga could not get loads
from the north, so that there were no loads to
forward. The situation was a very critical
one. The transport system has been steadily

184 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

getting worse there ever since, and the only
hope is the advance of the Benguella Railway,
which unfortunately has been held back by
this European war.

Mr. Lefevre was here also, having come
directly from Kimpuki, across country. He
was ill with fever. It seemed to us that much
of the cause of so much fever among the Bel-
gians was due to the plan of their houses and
the lack of provision for a fire during the cool
evenings. Their dining-room is usually in the
center of the house with no outer wall between
it and the veranda. It is like a cave of the
winds on most evenings. Their other rooms
are large, and we have never seen a fireplace
in any of their houses. We ourselves have a
fire morning and evening nearly eight months
in the year in Africa, especially evenings, even
when we are in tents on the trail. So do many
Britishers, and we are confident that this pre-
vents a great deal of sickness. Take it all in
all, in spite of over five thousand miles of
travel in all sorts of country and over native
trails, we have had a remarkably small amount
of fever. This is due, we believe, to our care
against getting chilled, our temperate lives,
the use of mosquito nets at night, if possible,
and the taking of no undue or foolhardy risks.

THROUGH DILOLO 185

We also follow the practice of taking five
grains of quinine a day when on the trail.

Mr. Classon referred me to the headman of
one of the near villages, who, he said, would
give me men if anyone would.

I immediately got into touch with this man,
and he came to our camp bringing a present.
We arranged with him to supply us with eight
carriers to go to Chilemo. This was the path
that we had expected to take and we followed
our rule of continuing in the course decided
upon until absolutely hindered or turned
aside. Our Gideon's test here was that if we
could get men to go on the Chilemo path we
would go that way. But if, after exhausting
every means to go that way, we failed, we
would see by what other route we could get
back to Lukoshi, which was about one hundred
and fifty miles due east of Dilolo.

I went over to the Dilolo Poste, or fort, with
its ramparts and moat, accessible by means of
a drawbridge. Everything there seemed quiet,
though the military forces were much in evi-
dence. I met Monsieur Martin, Chef du Sec-
teur, and with him was Lieutenant Clique,
who had accompanied Lieutenant Hedo from
Elisabethville. He was under instructions to
wait here for a party which was following

186 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

from Elisabethville to take over the adminis-
tration of this section incidental to its transfer
to the Katanga province.

Dilolo is in the remotest southwest corner
of the Belgian Congo, and this Lulua District
had up to this time been administered from
Boma. It was so remote that the higher offi-
cials seldom, if ever, penetrated there. And
when King Leopold's reign was over and Bel-
gium as a nation, with the humane and pro-
gressive King Albert at the head, took over
the administration, orders were given at once
to cease all oppression of the natives and
administer the country with regard to the
rights and welfare of the natives.

But it was no light task to reverse and revo-
lutionize the administration of a territory
more than seventy times the size of Belgium,
and where travel was very slow and transpor-
tation most difficult.

Another great problem was the personnel
of the officials. While many of them had dis-
approved of the old order and had rejoiced
at the new policy, falling in line with it at
once, yet a considerable percentage of the offi-
cials had thoroughly imbibed Leopold's ava-
ricious spirit and his viewpoint that he held
the country for what he could get out of it.

THROUGH DILOLO 187

As these men had profited largely from per-
centages on rubber, ivory, and other commodi-
ties of the royal stores, as well as by private
looting of the natives, they naturally favored
the old regime. And while the authorities
desired to weed out officials of this class, it
was manifestly impossible to do so in a day
or even in a year.

The Dilolo Poste being so remote, had been
therefore one of the last to be brought under
the new order.

It must be remembered that men will deteri-
orate rapidly when submerged in heathenism
and will very often adopt a point of view that
would have been utterly repugnant to them on
entering such service as this; and where not
checked by higher officials and a thoroughly
sane policy, they will naturally go to extremes.

I found at the Poste, much to my surprise,
that Leopold's portraits occupied several
prominent places, whereas no portrait of King
Albert could be seen. "Ah !" I said to myself,
"this accounts for the actions of some of these
officials." In reality they have not learned of
the death of Leopold and the consequent pass-
ing of his methods of administration — and of
the coming of the new King and a new regime.

Mr. Martin, a natty young fellow of mixed

188 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Belgian and Portuguese origin, asked about
our route and strongly advised me not to take
the Chilemo path. In fact he all but posi-
tively forbade my going that way, as it was on
that path near Nkuku's that his soldiers had
been attacked under his assistant and two
native soldiers had been killed. He repeated
his warning two or three times and advised us
to go on the path to the north of east.

But while I knew that it would likely be
fatal for him to take that path, I had little to
fear for my own party, as the natives had
nothing against us.

The trouble had arisen over unjust deals in
cattle with the natives and by the treatment
of the native women. The natives suffered
long and might have endured the cattle deals,
but when it came to their own wives it was
too much for them. They had all justice on
their side.

From the Poste, I went a mile away to a
store owned by a Portuguese named Courrier,
and there I met a veterinary, Dr. Hubert. I
saw quite a herd of cattle at that place, one of
which was being slaughtered for beef at the
time.

Much to the surprise of all the Europeans
at Dilolo, our carriers were on hand the next

THROUGH DILOLO 189

forenoon, and we started for Chilemo. Both
M. Martin and Lieutenant Clique shook their
heads when they learned that we expected to
spend that night at Nkuku's.

Our party kept close together on the trail.
As we neared Nkuku's old town, we saw a
sentry dash away to give warning of our ap-
proach. Our carriers showed signs of nervous-
ness. As we came into the old town and saw
that it was utterly deserted and burned, wTe
began to look for a path to the new town, and
at last my boys picked up indications of a new
path.

Mrs. Springer suggested that while I kept
at the front, she would drop behind to prevent
any of our men bolting. Some distance away
we saw some women at a water hole, but as we
approached they disappeared as if the earth
had opened and swallowed them. Prom time
to time we discerned the figure of a native who
also disappeared. We knew that there were
sentries all along and each was running to the
chief with a new message about us.

Our path lay along the edge of a vlei on one
side and a rubber forest on the other. The sun
was just going down and the uncanny still-
ness, broken only by the murmur of some mem-
ber of the caravan as he saw another sentry

190 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

run, began to get on our nerves. But for my
guarding one end of the caravan and my wife
the other, all of the Dilolo men would have
bolted, of that I am certain.

Now the path suddenly came into one of the
mafunda jungles, and though we could plainly
hear the voices of men, women, and children
we could see no one. It seemed to us that the
walls of Troy were simple beside the entrance
to this Chokwe town. So intricate were the
paths that Mrs. Springer and I became sepa-
rated, and while she could hear my voice on
the other side of a mafunda thicket, she could
not see me nor learn how to reach me until one
of the natives acted as guide. I had no guns
with me, and the presence of my wife was
ample evidence to them that whoever I might
be I was on a peaceable errand. There can be
no doubt but that the sentries had brought
word that I was unarmed and had my wife
with me, else it is possible that I would have
been held up long before I had ever reached
the encampment.

As soon as I saw any of the people, I asked
for Nkuku and was told that he was not there.
I said that I wished to camp there for the
night, and was directed to one of the open
places so common to this kind of jungle. Our

THROUGH DILOLO 191

Dilolo men and our own boys were questioned
as to who we were and what we were doing
there, and when the people were fully satisfied
regarding us Nkuku himself came out and
greeted us, bringing a present of meal and a
fowl.

We camped in that open circle surrounded
by Bachokwe on every side. After supper
Nkuku came to our evening fire and sat and
chatted with us for an hour or more. He gave
us an account of the oppression that had led
up to the rebellion, the taking of the cattle
with practically no payment, and then the
seizure of the women. Then he said, "We
would not have been men if we had not risen
to the defense of our wives and children."

I was glad to be able to reassure him as to
the future. I told him that the officials they had
had in the past did not truly represent the new
king. In response to my queries they said
that, yes, they had always had honest dealings
with the Kassai Co. men, and yes, they were
"Bula Matadi" also. I assured them that the
new king was a man with a good heart toward
his people.

I asked the chief if he had never had bad
messengers go forth and pervert his words
and misrepresent him. He admitted that he

192 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

had. Even so, I told him, these officials mis-
represent their king. Other officials were even
now on the path coming to Dilolo to set mat-
ters right for the native people.

He said that he was glad. Neither he nor
his people wanted war. They were for peace
all the time but, he repeated, "we would not
be men if we allowed our women and children
to be mistreated and killed and did not rise
to defend them."

This talk with him prepared the way and
probably did much toward his meeting the
Commandant a month later and coming to a
friendly understanding.

We had been overwhelmed with meal from
Nkuku's people, who had plenty of meal but
no salt, so they wished to make the exchange.
While we were at breakfast three of our Dilolo
men cleared out. Not one of Nkuku's young
bucks would consider carrying a load for us
and, in fact, none of them would guide us, so
that the chief himself had to lead us out of his
labyrinth of jungle onto the main path nearly
three miles away. We had to put two loads
into the mono-cycle and Mrs. Springer had
to walk several miles.

Getting carriers from day to day, and in
some cases from village to village, we passed

THROUGH DILOLO 193

through the danger zone and came to Chilemo
on the fourth day. Here were three white men
of the Kassai Co. who made our stay as pleas-
ant as possible, and when the surly Chokwe
chief failed to give us any carriers, they called
their own personal boys and sent them with us
one day's trek.

Along here the villages were a great mixture
of Chokwe, Luena, Lunda, and Andembwe.
The difficulties with carriers only increased,
and it was a weary caravan that came to
Mpumba's old village one evening after sun-
down only to find desolation and solitude.

In the center was the hut where Mpumba
was buried. This was the very town where ten
months previously we had seen the swarms of
lively children who had raced so merrily with
my bicycle, the first they had ever seen. It
was here that we had felt such a warmth of
hospitality and interest and where we had
been surrounded with youths eager to tell us
Luunda words.

Now most of the huts were burned and there
was litter all over the place. Mpumba had
been shot in consequence of a quarrel with a
neighboring chief, and was the fourth head-
man to be thus murdered in two years.

The next morning we faced a sullen, almost

194 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

icy cold river, so different from the merry,
sparkling little river in whose warm waters
we had so gladly waded before. We found it
impossible to wade across at that spot, but
finally got across farther up where the water
reached nearly to our thighs and the current
was very swift and strong. Mrs. Springer had
to wade too, it being impossible to carry her
over in safety.

About seven miles on we came to Sami-
lunga's village and, getting new carriers,
pushed on to Lukoshi, a day's march of
twenty-two miles.

Thus ended a journey of six hundred miles,
covering eight weeks of time, and one of the
most trying we had ever experienced.

Besides our own boys, of whom there were
six, we had needed an additional twelve each
day. We ought to have had that many to go
with us from Kazembe's villages making the
round trip. But instead of that we had a total
of over one hundred and fifty different
carriers, and fifty of these ran away before
doing the amount of the journey which they
had agreed upon.

Truly it was a land needy of the Gospel.

CHAPTER XIV
A DELUGE OF BELGIANS

How beautiful our house looked as we
climbed the western bank at Lukoshi and it
came into view! Not even Windsor Castle
could compare in our eyes with this crude mud
and pole structure with its leaky grass-
thatched roof, for it was our HOME. And
after two months of living in a small, hot tent,
it was a treat to be in a bedroom once more
and to sleep on a real bed, even though that
bed were made of poles and the mattress of
lumpy grass.

And then the luxury of having fresh goat's
milk and vegetables, though Billy had eaten
more beans than was good for him and thus
reduced the number that came to the table.
But there was plenty of fresh, crispy lettuce
and cucumbers, and we fairly reveled in the
pleasure of occupying our simple home again.

We now settled down in our minds to nine
months of solid routine work, the only solid
foundation on which to build. It is the quiet,
steady, uneventful plugging along that estab-

195

196 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

lishes confidence among the people, trains a
native ministry, and forms the very bulwark
of a Mission.

One of the first things to be done now was
to build a new bridge at the west crossing, so
that another rainy season would not find us
cut off from the outside world, and we would
have to use our bath for a boat in which to
bring over the mail.

On the fifth day after our return, just as the
boys were dismantling the bridge, Jim came
up to the house saying that there was a white
man crossing the bridge. As we had had but
one visit from a white man during the year
that we had been there, we were greatly sur-
prised.

I went to meet him and learned that it was
M. Garnier, who brought a letter from Com-
mandant Gosme, the new Commissaire of the
Lulua District of the Katanga, stating that
he had heard of the revolt near Dilolo and had
sent M. Garnier ahead to afford us protection.
Appreciative of his thoughtfulness, we could
not but smile as we recalled our trip right
through the seat of the revolt and our search
of and visit to Nkuku.

We found M. Garnier to be a perfect gentle-
man, and although he did not speak a word

A DELUGE OF BELGIANS 197

of English and we scarcely any French, yet
we managed to make ourselves mutually
understood and enjoyed his company very
much in the intervening five days before the
rest of the party arrived. He was then under
appointment to Dilolo, but in a few months
was sent to Kapanga, where Mr. Heinkel
found him in charge the next June. His
advice and assistance to Mr. Heinkel at that
time were very valuable.

M. Gamier had some fifty native soldiers
with him. He camped a mile from us on the
other side of the river, and built a caravansary
of three roofs on the new cleared path that
Lieutenant Hedo had instructed the chiefs
along the way to clear from Kambove to Dilolo
via Kayoyo.

Five days later Commandant Gosme, accom-
panied by Lieutenant Brausse, arrived with
some fifty more soldiers, and the party rested
in the caravansary for a week. This gave the
opportunity to call in the chiefs and explain
the new administration to them. Kazembe
had to hustle his people for miles around to
bring in food required for the native police,
their families, and the carriers. All this was
paid for in Belgian currency, an attempt
to get the natives used to cash; but, as they

198 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

said to me later with a wry face : "What is the
use of cash when there are no stores in which
to spend it? We cannot eat francs, and francs
will not keep us warm at night."

The Belgians paid the natives a good price
for all that they got, but it nearly cleaned out
this shiftless and improvident communitiy so
that real suffering followed from the shortage
of food before the year was out.

Commandant Gosme was a burly, brusk,
capable administrator, with sixteen years' ex-
perience in the Congo, just the type of man
needed for the task in this District. We were
able to give him a sketch of the route to Dilolo
with names of all the villages en route and
much information as to the country, particu-
larly that pertaining to the revolt. We told
him how Nkuku had professed his entire
allegiance to the Belgian administration while
revolting against certain of its administrators.

The Commandant greatly appreciated our
viewpoint of the revolt, as it coincided with
his own conclusions. In passing, I am glad
to say that he sent word to Nkuku of his peace-
ful approach and had a most satisfactory in-
terview with him, bringing about an early ter-
mination of the revolt in that section at least.

During the stay of the officials, we had many

A DELUGE OF BELGIANS 199

times of breaking bread together and were
interested to hear the new plans concerning
mail and other routes. So far, all our mail
had come through Kaleni Hill in Ehodesia,
eighty miles away. Now the Government was
to establish a weekly mail route past our very
door. What a joy to get our mail in this
manner and so much quicker!

These three white men left on the 24th of
July, and the next day Captain Legeois
arrived with about fifty soldiers and one hun-
dred and fifty carriers. The natives were abso-
lutely dismayed at the thought of having to
feed another such an army. Kazembe came to
me privately and especially requested that I
write a letter telling the Belgians to leave the
country. He did not care for their protection,
he did not want their help, and, above all, he
did not want to pay taxes. The Africans share
with others the wish to enjoy the benefits of
government without payment of taxes. For
in spite of his vaunted independence not many
months later Kazembe came to me in great
fright and wanted me to write another letter
begging the "Bula Matadi" to protect him
from an old enemy.

Eight on the heels of Captain Legeois came
Messrs. Anglebert and Truyens from the

200 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

southeast, and the following day Captain
Legeois and M. Angelbert left for Dilolo and
after another day's visit with us M. Truyens
turned back to his isolated station on the
border where he was customs officer — where
no customs were to be received.

So, while for nine months of the previous
year we had not seen another white person
besides our three selves, we now had had in
the past three weeks Belgians and more Bel-
gians and still more Belgians. To be sure
though numbering only six in all, they seemed
more like sixty, and entirely disturbed our
hitherto quiet living.

When we opened our third year of school on
July 31, there was a definite interrogation in
our minds as to where we would be when we
opened the fourth year of the Fox Bible Train-
ing School a year hence. Would this influx
of Belgian officials create a new center west
of us near Dilolo and thus increase the im-
portance of this location? Or would the
development of the country to the north enable
us to push on and occupy at Mwata Yamvo's?
We could only work on quietly and await
further indications.

CHAPTER XV
SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI

ON our return to LukosM from the trip to
Mwata Yamvo's, we found two new applicants
for the school, Mubita and Yambi, who had
come several hundred miles from their home
in Barotseland, near the Victoria Falls. They
were in search of a school where they could
learn English. Mubita had attended a ver-
nacular school for six months in his own coun-
try, and in that time had mastered all the
books available and the subjects taught there.
This had whetted his appetite. He wanted
more and broader schooling, and above all he
wanted English, the language of power in
South and Central Africa.

Now English as a subject was out of the
scope of that mission. Some missions depre-
cate the natives learning English. But it is
not in the power of any mission nor of all
missions put together to determine whether
the natives shall or shall not learn English.
English they hear and English they will learn,

SOI

202 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

not only to speak, but to read and write, even
though they have to cross the continent or even
the ocean itself in order to get it. Scores and
hundreds of natives have gone to England or
America in quest of a higher education than
they can find in Africa, rarely with the best
results for themselves.

The only question that Missions can settle
ultimately is where such aspiring youths can
secure their hearts' desire, and whether it shall
be under conditions which develop the best
that is in them and meet their real needs as
well as satisfying their ambitions. Many a
bright, promising youth has been lost to the
particular mission field in which he was found,
and in too many cases to the Kingdom itself,
by the refusal of those missions to meet the
needs and satisfy the normal and proper aspir-
ations awakened within them.

Mubita and Yambi had passed several mis-
sion schools in their journey to us and had
considered their merits. But either these
schools, like those they had left, were limited
to the vernacular consisting ofttimes of not
more than six to ten textbooks at the very
outside, or else they offered very little English
and the school was conducted solely by women.
Not satisfied with such prospects, they pressed

SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI 203

on until at last they heard of a school far away
in the great forest and searched us out and
were accepted.

There is a small group of missions, largely
undenominational or interdenominational, who
contend for what they choose to term "an
evangelistic" policy in opposition to the
methods pursued by nearly all the large or-
ganizations under the regular church boards
which these same parties characterize as "the
educational policy."

The evangelistic policy, followed notably by
the societies representing communions who
look for a speedy end of this dispensation and
of the second coming of our Lord for the mil-
lennium, calls for the major part of the mis-
sionary effort to be given to the evangelization
of the present generation. In many of these
missions their main efforts are largely in
preaching the Gospel to the adults.

What schools they do have are solely in the
vernacular, and a bright lad will go through
all the books printed in that vernacular within
a year of entering school and starting on the
alphabet. Then he wants more, and if he can-
not get it here will seek new pastures. Occa-
sionally some of the individual missionaries
will take him on as a private pupil, but

204 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

this means irregular and much interrupted
progress.

We have known missions following this
policy who have not had a single trained
native to help in school and evangelistic work
after working twenty-five years in the country,
and consequently not an out-station. And
where there have been found such evangelists,
their knowledge was so shallow that they
could not continue long in one place with
acceptance. To do good evangelistic work, the
natives must have the Bible and there are very
few African languages to-day into which the
whole of the Bible has been translated.

Moreover, the use of women teachers exclu-
sively in boys' schools is not the best arrange-
ment, however excellent the teaching may be.
For centuries women have occupied a subordi-
nate position in the heathen world, so where
the school work is left entirely to women, It
naturally does not bulk largely in the native
mind as "a man's job." The native under-
stands and accepts the fact that the mission-
ary's wife or other lady members of the mis-
sion must do a large part of the teaching so
long as the man does all that he possibly can.
It is very important that the male missionary
takes the head and lead of the school as princi-

SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI 205

pal, teaching as many classes as lie can, espe-
cially one or more Bible classes every day.

In contradistinction to the merely "evan-
gelistic" policy, is a broader one followed
notably by most of the leading American, Eng-
lish, Scotch, and Continental Societies. These,
while not neglecting in any w^ay the preaching
of the Gospel in all the villages far and near,
place education as the primary and most im-
portant charge and activity of the mission,
setting their hope on the rising generation.

This is on the well-recognized truth that the
world cannot be evangelized solely by foreign
missionaries. Even if that were possible, it
would not be desirable. Africa cannot possibly
be evangelized by the white man, the American
Negro, or any other foreigner, therefore our
supreme obligation and opportunity is to raise
up a native ministry, thus multiplying our lives
many fold in these new agents of the Gospel.

Of the one hundred boys or more that we
and others had in our school and under our
training in eastern Ehodesia from 1901 to
1906, fully thirty are to-day engaged in teach-
ing and preaching, most of them in charge of
stations out in the villages.

Of the fifty different young men connected
with this entirely new work during the past

206 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

five years in Central Africa, fully a dozen are
already capable of holding services and teach-
ing schools and are so employed.

We make the school an evangelistic center
and a supreme evangelistic opportunity. The
daily Bible classes give an unexcelled oppor-
tunity to instill the divine truth and to ground
the religious character. Once or twice a year
we are wont to set apart a week for special
meetings for prayer and definite commitment,
and on most of these occasions, time and time
again, before the close of that week's meetings,
every boy in the school has intelligently and
definitely taken a stand as committing himself
to God.

Normal school methods for the training of
native teachers are employed in our schools,
and the older boys are set to teaching the
younger ones. Moreover, the senior students
are sent to teach day schools in the near vil-
lages, mine compounds, or wherever an oppor-
tunity is found. As we hold the station school
only in the forenoon, this enables no little
evangelistic and teaching work to be done
afternoons.

There is convincing proof of its value wher-
ever the broader policy of fitting the natives
for evangelistic work and Christian leadership

SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI 207

among their own people has been carried on.
It is the natural method. They know their
people, they speak their language, they under-
stand their trend of thought, they are ac-
quainted with their customs, they are used to
their mode of life. In the truest and ultimate
sense, this is the evangelistic method.

In our work at Lukoshi we sent our boys out
far and near teaching and preaching in the
wrhole region round about, and this we could
not have prepared them to do had the teaching
been confined to the vernacular in which at
that time we did not have one printed book.
But even in those older missions, where, after
fifty to seventy-five years there is a translation
of the whole Bible into the vernuacular, there
is still such a limited native literature that
leaders cannot be trained to do efficient work
by it alone.

We do, however, confine our teaching in
English to the boarding schools. We sent out
our boys daily to all the villages round about,
taking homemade charts whereby they taught
the elementary lessons of the vernacular,
teaching hymns which we had duplicated on
the typewriter, and also having the children
memorize what few portions of Scripture we
had translated.

208 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

We had only eleven boys in the Training
School when we opened it in July. These were
from seven different tribes, and at times it
was hard to keep the peace between them. On
one occasion, as the boys were sitting around
their fire in the evening, they got to telling of
different tribal characteristics, and in a teas-
ing way Peter quietly remarked that the An-
dembwe ate chicken hawks. Now Mutombo's
mother was a Mundembwe and he immedi-
ately resented this statement; heated words
passed between the two until Mutombo sud-
denly jumped to his feet, ran to his room,
rolled up his blanket and started off on the
run. He would not remain on the same station
with a boy who would say that his people ate
chicken hawks.

Peter was terribly upset over the matter,
and the next day started out and was gone two
days searching for the runaway, who was
quietly sitting at Kazembe's village at the
time and who returned of his own accord the
next day. After that Peter curbed his spirit
of teasing considerably.

Not long after this poor Mutombo was act-
ing as our table boy and fell into the tempta-
tion of stealing sugar. As we had no doors
to lock, it was impossible for us to keep things

SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI 209

under lock and key. Moreover, years before
we had decided that such was not the best way
to instill the principles of honesty. So when
we discovered what was going on, I took the
houseboys and told them that I had trusted
them and should continue to do so in the
future. That they must be trained to be men
and overcome a desire to steal things placed in
their care. We have found it to be very
unusual for our house boys to steal from us.
We keep a pretty good watch on our things,
but do not lock them up. This stopped the
stealing at that time.

About this time we had sent two of our
own boys to Kaleni for the mail, as only our
first-class matter was coming by the Belgian
route. We still had to get our parcel post the
other way. These two boys were on their way
back when they were scared by a lion and had
to spend the whole night in a tree. It was a
long time before we could get any others to
make the trip.

One of our pleasantest recollections of the
next few weeks was the holding of our prayer
meetings out in the yard by the glowing fire,
especially when there was a moon. We had
by this time cleared a considerable space in
the yard and there was no scarcity of firewood.

210 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

So we would have a big fire and all gather
around it.

We will never forget some of these prayer
meetings on the moonlight nights. From the
villages came the sounds of dancing and the
sensual merry-making of heathenism. The
moon takes a great hold on people. Here
around our glowing campfire, with Christian
hymns, repeating of Scriptures from memory,
prayers of thanksgiving to the great Father,
every one of our boys took some part, and most
of them testified to their gratitude that they
had been led to know God as their Father and
Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

At this time as problems arose, of daily con-
trol of the school, of teaching in simplest terms
the essential Gospel message, of planning for
the future, and, more than all, of growing in
one's own religious experience, there was the
frequent necessity for going into the seques-
tered places of the great forest to be alone with
God. We shall ever look back with gratitude
for the privilege of those years when the voice
of the outside world was little heard and where
in humble silence the message of the Father
penetrated to the very depth of our souls.

We were impressed over and over again with
the sentiment suggested by George Matheson

SECOND SEASON AT LUKOSHI 211

on Exodus 13:17, 18 that "the children of
Israel needed the wilderness and the wilder-
ness needed them." Truly we needed the
wilderness as much as the wilderness needed
us.

On the first of September we received a fly-
ing visit from Mr. P. B. Last, of the Plymouth
Brethren, whose station was at Bunkeya's,
fifty-two miles northeast of Kambove. He had
been on a visit to Kaleni Hill (from which at
this time of writing we have just learned that
he has just carried off Miss Hoyt as his wife),
and was now on his way back.

From him we learned that no Protestant
Mission had been established at Elisabethville,
and that no Mission work whatever had been
established at Kambove, toward which point
the Cape-to-Cairo Railway was now approach-
ing.

As a Mission the Plymouth Brethren had
been approached to open a work at Elisabeth-
ville, and they had carefully considered the
matter, with the conclusion that there were two
distinct fields of work: that in the villages
where they, the members of the Garenganze
Mission established by Mr. Frederick Arnot,
had labored for twenty-five years, and where
they were known by the natives. This field

212 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

they could not abandon and it now demanded
more than their full force of workers. In fact,
if they had ten times their present force, it
could be fully utilized in the eastern part of
the Katanga in the Luba-Sanga field.

On the other hand, mining and town work
was opening up, constituting a separate field.
To enter and care for it would demand all of
their present force and more. So they had
definitely decided to remain by the village
work, for which they were directly responsible
and in which they were well established, leav-
ing to others the occupation of the towns and
industrial centers.

This message came to us as from above, and
in that unmistakable way in which the Spirit
can make clear to the individual soul that a
certain message of the sacred page or of a
living voice is for him and comes as an indi-
vidual revelation.

All uncertainty concerning our future
speedily vanished, and ere another month had
passed we knew that the two new stations to
be built the next year would be at Mwata
Yamvo's and at Kambove.

CHAPTER XVI
THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI

THE remaining1 months of 1912 sped by
filled to overflowing with busy labor on school
and language. There were several of the little
boys from the adjoining villages who came to
us, and for a number of weeks Mrs. Springer
had held a school for the girls in the after-
noons.

The girls in this section were the most hope-
less that we have ever seen, but we felt that
at least some effort must be made to reach
them. When we announced the invitation to
come to school, the mothers appeared and said
that if the girls came to the school they must
be paid in salt. Mrs. Springer replied that she
would not pay them in salt. She would furnish
the beads for the beadwork and calico for the
sewing classes, but they would get no pay. The
girls came and the school grew until it num-
bered more than twenty.

I had begun the translation of Mark, and
though it was slow work I pushed on, hoping
to get the first draft completed before April or

213

214 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

May when the rains would be over; for there
was no thought in our minds that we would
leave before May.

But the rains came on at the beginning of
September, and all through that month were
quite heavy. Then came a month of practically
no rain, and the native gardens dried up and
hunger stalked abroad through that section.
In November there again were heavy rains, but
December was dry. The maize crops in
Khodesia were a total failure, and all the peo-
ple around Kazembe's were practically on the
verge of starvation. Whole villages packed up
and moved to the north where there was better
soil, and where they could buy food to keep
them alive until they could get their gardens
going. We often had to close our school on
Thursdays and send most of the boys to dis-
tant villages to get food for our station.

Commandant Gosme had now established
headquarters at Kafakumba, four days due
north of us, and he and the Chef du Poste at
Kayoyo were sending messengers to Kazembe
telling him that he must have his people pay
their taxes. Kazembe was in a rage and sent
word to me two or three times and finally
came in person to say what practically
amounted to this, that if I were any good at

THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI 215

all I would write a letter and drive all the
Belgians out of the country.

A month later he got word that Chipepela
was advancing to make war on him, and he
hustled over to me again begging me to write
to the Commandant and have him stop Chi-
pepela. I wrote this letter for him, and
Kazembe was so grateful that he brought me
a goat and some fowls as a payment, but I
refused to accept them under the circum-
stances.

The reader may ask why the Government
should demand taxes when there was a famine.
Because both the Government and ourselves
were wanting laborers and carriers, and were
willing to pay for them. The men could have
had plenty to eat while working, earning
enough to feed their families and pay their
taxes, but they would rather sit in their vil-
lages or move to remote places than do any-
thing of the kind. They would rather starve
in idleness than work and have plenty. This
is very unlike the average African, who is
willing to work if he is paid and gets plenty
to eat.

On December 23 two messengers arrived with
a basket of fowls as a present from Mwata
Yamvo, wrho they said was at Kafakumba. He

216 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

had hoped to get as far as our station, but was
not able to do so. He sent imperative word
for Kazembe to come there and bring his
tribute. I told Kazembe that I was going up
in four days and he had better go with me. He
held up his hands saying that he could never
get ready in that time.

"Yes, you can," emphatically broke in his
head wife in disgust. So he said he would.
He needed protection through some of that
country, and I was ready to give it to him.
But at the last minute he found some excuse
for not going, and again stayed at home and
devoured the tribute prepared for Mwata
Yamvo.

Mrs. Springer and I pushed on as hard as
we could, but on reaching Kafakumba New
Year's Day, found to our regret that Mwata
Yamvo had left a few days previously. Had
we but known it, he had stopped there about
six weeks, during which time most of the chiefs
had been sent for, and the Government had
made it very clear to them that Mwata Yamvo
was still their great Chief, and that his word
to them was law; moreover, that all domestic
slavery must cease.

With the opening of 1913, after our trip to
Kafakumba, events began to shape themselves

THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI 217

for our departure to build the two permanent
stations on which we had decided.

It was agreed that Mr. Heinkel should go
up to Mwrata Yamvo and build a house there,
and then in October come down to Kambove.
We were fully expecting that the new mission-
ary for that station would be leaving America
in March, and be at Kambove in April or May.
So we wanted that he should have a house in
which to live as soon as possible. But in any
case it would be a great help to a new man to
have some one who understood the methods
of building in Africa on the spot to look after
the job. Accordingly an application was sent
to Commandant Gosme asking for permission
to settle and build at Mwata Yamvo's town,
and the permission was granted.

On January 28, Kayeka Mutembo arrived
from Angola with his party of fifteen, includ-
ing the children. It was now two years since
we had seen Kayeka at Kalulua as related in
the opening chapter.

His party had had a rough time of it indeed.
They found the Bachokwe country devastated
by war and its ensuing famine. A slave could
easily be bought in many of the villages for
a dish of meal. This brave little party strug-
gling through to their own country had to pay

218 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

as high as eight yards of calico for a plate of
meal. This they made into thin gruel, and the
whole family of six of them had to make that
do for one day's rations. No wonder they got
sick! The wonder is that they ever lived to
wade through those flooded swamps and after
months of fasting and fever to reach our
station.

As children in the wayside villages were
being sold for a mere handful of food, two of
Kayeka's carriers, themselves ex-slaves return-
ing to their native land in the Luba country,
bought a small lad to help them carry their
loads. His name was Nganiba, and when he
arrived at Lukoshi he was a mere skeleton, and
such had been his sufferings that for a year
or two we feared that he had been embittered
for life. As soon as I learned that he was a
slave I told him that he was now free, and
stood by him in the row that his owners made
over his freedom. Ngamba has now been
nearly three years in the Fox Bible Training
School and is an earnest Christian. He is
gradually outgrowing the effects of those
months of untold suffering and gives much
promise for the future.

All the way along the trail, Kayeka had held
services and preached in nearly every village.

RACHEL SALA

NASALA MOSES KAYEKA ESTHER

Fox BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL, LUKOSHI, 1913

THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI 219

His arrival at LukosM created quite a stir.
The present Kazembe was an uncle or some
such near relative. The native African does
not reckon all his relationships as we do, and
so it is often difficult for the occidental to com-
prehend them.

Kayeka found an own sister living ten miles
away. To whomsoever he spoke and wherever
he went, he bore a mighty testimony for
Christ. He had to live in a simple, hastily
constructed shack for those two months at
Lukoshi, but what a contrast there was be-
tween his own sweet, happy family life and the
lives of the heathen round about!

,We missionaries had testified continually to
the power of God in our own lives, testified by
life as well as word, and so had the boys of
our school. But we belonged to another race
and the boys to other tribes. Here was a man
of their own tribe, born in that very Lukoshi
valley, who exemplified in a conspicuous man-
ner in his own gracious personality and in his
beautiful family life, the great blessings of the
Gospel. Thus for the two months that we
remained at Lukoshi he was constantly en-
gaged in study, teaching, and evangelizing.

Soon after his arrival, Kayeka came to me
with the same request that he had made at the

220 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

time of his first visit two years previously,
namely, that Ms three girls should be enabled
to get a good education. He was very keen
to have them placed in a girls' boarding school
where they would be under the constant care
of some devoted Christian woman and be away
from the contamination of the heathen village
life.

He was so dead in earnest over the matter,
which I knew was one of vital importance, that
I had not the heart to tell him that I feared
that it might be years before such a school
would be a reality in the Lunda country. We
realized so well that it was n,ot Kayeka's girls
alone who needed such a school, but all the
other girls of these Christian parents, not to
mention the hundreds of girls now in heathen
towns. God grant that the day may not be
far distant when there shall be such a refuge
for the little Lunda girls.

As Kayeka had brought in some carriers
who wanted work, we decided to use them.
We packed one steamer trunk and sent it east
to Chimbunji, and then began to make up and
send loads to Kimpuki. From there we were
certain that we could get other carriers. This
section was the worst with which to deal.

We were still planning to leave in May, but

THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI 221

as the rains were so light and the river had
hardly risen at all, we began to think we might
leave in April. We were having considerable
trouble wTith Kazembe over slaves. One of
them named Chosa came to us and said that
he wanted to remain. Kazembe vowed that
his wife gave birth to the lad, and she swore
to the same thing. At last they admitted that
Chosa told a true story when he said that he
had been paid to her for her son who had been
killed in an expedition undertaken by Chosa's
people in which the son had joined.

So we told Kazembe plainly that he could
not longer hold the boy as a slave. Chosa had
come to us and asked us to help him get his
freedom, and the "Bula Matadi" had sent
word to all the chiefs that slavery must be
abolished. So he would have to let the lad go.

He was in a great rage at us. The fact is
that most of the people in his village were
slaves, and he was afraid that they would all
leave him. Many of them came to us asking
our help to free them. We were willing to
take them to the Government, but they held
back in fear. They knew the Government
would proclaim them free, but who was to save
them from the deadly bullet on their return?
We had to guard Chosa until he was well

222 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

out of that section of country on his way to
Mwata Yamvo's with Mr. Heinkel.

The girls suddenly ceased attending school,
and we learned that Kazembe had given orders
that no more girls were to attend school. Our
boys said that the most of the girls were slaves,
and it was feared that they, too, would want
their freedom. When Kazembe had finished
sitting on the case of Chiwahe's father, he had
required one of the little girls in payment.
She was about twelve years old, and in another
two years would become a part of Kazembe's
harem.

By the middle of March we had sent nearly
fifty loads on to Kiinpuki, for our plan was
to send everything on to Mwata Yamvo's that
was not strictly personal.

We had been trying in vain to get carriers
from Kazembe and then sent to the Govern-
ment, but they could not even get the carriers
they needed for themselves. One day, about
the middle of March, I sent James to a group
of villages a few days' journey to the north-
west. I had never visited them personally,
but had sent the boys there on evangelistic
tours. While these were in Kazembe's juris-
diction, they had little to do with him. I told
James to tell the village chiefs that I wanted

THE EXODUS FROM LUKOSHI 223

thirty men in two weeks' time to go with us
to Kambove.

He was to return by Monday noon without
fail and report; but he did not appear. Day
after day passed until Thursday, and no sight
of Jim. Thursday noon as we sat down to
lunch we heard a great shout from the boys,
and looking out saw James swinging into the
yard with satisfaction written all over him
and expressed in every step, followed by
twenty-nine carriers. He had started with
thirty, but one had turned back that morning.

"You see," he explained in answer to my
question as to why he brought the men now,
"they were willing to come and so I bring them
before they change their minds."

"Give them something to eat," I said, and
then took a long breath. Mrs. Springer and
I exchanged a long look and then she ex-
claimed, "This is nothing short of a miracle !"
and I echoed, "It certainly is a miracle !" Had
these men dropped from the sky itself it would
not have seemed more of a miracle.

Then we started packing, working as in a
dream, but working hard withal until late that
night, and at ten o'clock the next morning
crossed the east bridge of the Lukoshi for the
last time. It was the 26th of March and just

224 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

a year previously the river was seven feet
higher at that crossing than to-day. The river
now was not much over its low water mark.
If it had been our leaving now would have
been impossible. We felt that this also was
a part of the Divine plan.

A few days later Mr. Heinkel started the
ex-slaves off with Kayeka at their head, and
then he followed, overtaking them at Kafa-
kumba, where they had to be registered and
given passes by the Government.

He was greatly indebted to the Kassai Co.
at Kimpuki for carriers, and he was enabled
to take the short route via Katola, reaching
Mwata Yamvo's the latter part of May. Here
he found Monsieur Gamier, who gave him
much valuable assistance. Unfortunately his
last few days on the trail were marked by un-
seasonable and heavy rains whereby he was
drenched and caught a severe cold, bringing
on a relapse of a pulmonary affection which
he had had in the United States. Fortunately
a government physician, Dr. Trolley, passed
through at that time and gave him medicine,
which greatly relieved him.

CHAPTER XVII
KAMBOVE

DIVINE PROVIDENCE does not altogether
eliminate the operations of human weakness.
These carriers of ours had never been over
this route before, and it is doubtful if they
had even been two hundred miles from home
in any direction. Kambove, two hundred and
fifty miles distant, seemed to them as far away
as Africa does to the average American,
namely, quite out of the world. So it was not
surprising that they became alarmed when
they saw that the villages along the path were
all deserted. Where we had found flourishing
gardens eighteen months before, there was
now only the deepest jungle of grass and
weeds, a jungle so dense that at times the
carriers could keep from getting lost from one
another only by constant coo-hooing back and
forth.

Late in the afternoon of the third day nine
of them decided that this journey was too
much for them and, dropping their loads, they

225

226 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

bolted. James, whose duty it was to come up
at the rear to see that all the carriers reached
camp safely each night, happened to learn that
they were bolting and were running around
him through the forest. Without waiting to
see me, he started in pursuit. He went back
to their villages and secured other carriers to
take their places. The morning after their
desertion I was obliged to leave six loads by
the path on hastily constructed racks, and he
picked these up as he came back a week later
with the men. The rain and white ants had
not improved the contents of the boxes, but
nothing of value was really destroyed.

Eighteen of these carriers went right
through with us to Kambove, but to prevent
their bolting also involved a constant watch-
ing of them night and day. We hired other
carriers at different places along the way, but
these deserted. So, what with heavy rains
through which we sometimes had to walk all
day, Mrs. Springer and myself, both drenched
to the skin, with insufficient food, bad trails
through the jungle, and the anxiety about our
men, we were thankful enough to reach Kam-
bove after twenty-one days on the trail.

It is gratifying to be able to add that these
eighteen men, who had to be at times almost

KAMBOVE 227

forced to complete the journey, came and
thanked me heartily for compelling them to
fulfill their contract and thus have the oppor-
tunity of seeing all the wonders (to them) of
Kambove, though the rails had not reached
there as yet, although the formation was com-
plete. I went to the trouble of taking the men
to the rail head ten miles away and they saw
the trucks on the rails and heard the engine
as it puffed off just a few minutes before we
arrived.

On the day of our arrival at Kambove, as
we climbed the long steep hill to the mining
camp (for there was no town at that time nor
was the site for the new town yet chosen), the
first house we came to was empty, so Mrs.
Springer and the carriers sat down while I
spent an hour hunting up the manager of the
mine, M. Bertrand, who very kindly put this
same house at our disposal for as long a time
as we needed it.

At once I set out to discover a suitable loca-
tion for the Mission. I consulted maps of the
mining reserves, interviewed officials, and ex-
plored in many directions, but after three
weeks we seemed as far away from a site as
ever.

I had had in my mind's eye a mental pic-

228 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

ture of what the site was to be. One afternoon
as I climbed one of the many hills about Kam-
bove, I saw another hill some distance away
and was instantly impressed that it was the
hill for our Mission. Late that afternoon I
took two boys and we reached it after much
difficulty, owing to the steep ravines which
we had to cross from the side from which we
approached it. The next day I took Mrs.
Springer there, approaching from another
side, which again meant the crossing of two
other very steep ravines. She, too, was satis-
fied that it was the spot for us. When depart-
ing after our inspection of the site we saw a
faint path made by natives who had been there
cutting trees, and following this path we found
that it led us along a level ridge right to the
railroad formation at the point later selected
as the site for the depot, so that our Mission
buildings are now slightly over a half mile
from the railroad depot. From our buildings
to the depot is an excellent bicycle path on
our own grounds right to the railroad. The
point I would emphasize is that we were led
to choose this site before we knew of its future
nearness and access to the railroad station,
and before the town site was fixed upon. The
town itself was later laid out beginning from

KAMBOVE , 229

the station on the other side of the tracks from
us and extending in the opposite direction to
the northwest.

On May 16 I made my initial formal appli-
cation for the concession of land we required
— a tract of about two hundred acres. The
Commissaire thought that it would probably
be some months before we could get permission
even to build, as the town site had not yet been
fixed. He communicated with the head offices
at Elisabethville, and receiving a prompt reply
told me that we could enter upon the conces-
sion at once and put up inexpensive buildings
pending further negotiations. So I began a
simple pole structure thatched with grass at
first, and also walled with grass. We moved
over on May 21, before the roof was finished,
and with our loads around us in the primitive
forest began the building of Kambove Station,
mostly from the materials at hand.

A few days later as I came out on the rail-
road formation at the foot of our path, I
encountered a party of officials hastily making
their way down to the rail head, and among
them I recognized Vice-Governor General
Wangermee. He remembered me from our
visit to Elisabethville two years previously. I
spoke of our desire to receive definite word in

230 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

reply to our application for this site as soon
as possible, and lie told me that he was quite
sure that they would be able to grant the
application, though it would have to go
through the usual formalities. In commenting
on other correspondence between us, he ex-
pressed great gratification on the part of the
Government at the return of the ex-slaves from
Angola, natives of the Belgian Congo, which
was being effected by our presence in the
Lunda country, and which, as a result of
Kayeka's return to his own country, was being
greatly encouraged and increased.

Kambove was now undergoing a rapid trans-
formation. On our arrival the old mining
camp consisted of a number of mud and pole
houses, one general trading store, two Kaffir
truck stores, one canteen — the "National
Cafe" — a butcher shop, and a bicycle shop.
These merchants had a very small stock of
goods, as the cost of transportation from rail
head was exorbitant, and it was now a matter
of but a few weeks when the rails should reach
Kambove. The prices fairly staggered us, the
cost being about as high on provisions, etc.,
as they had been at Lukoshi, but new stores
were opening up every day, mostly for trade
with the natives. At a place called The Tri-

KAMBOVE , 231

angle, the junction of the stub line with the
main line, there were about a dozen canteens,
or bars, carrying on their nefarious business
among the two hundred white men who were
employed in various ways along railroad con-
struction.

In building the Mission Station, one of the
greatest difficulties at first was in securing
tools with which to work, the stores having
practically none in stock. However, I obtained
the few necessary tools from various sources.
A few were given to me by Mr. Grey, who was
head carpenter on the railroad construction,
and gradually our equipment began to corre-
spond with our needs.

The very first week of our stay in Kam-
bove the news spread among the natives that
a missionary had arrived, and a number of
boys hailed me on the path and asked if I had
any books for sale. One boy ordered a Sankey
hymn book on the next day after our arrival.
We had a few of our Natural English Primers,
worked out at Kansanshi, Kalalua, and Luko-
shi, and printed on our Methodist Mission
Press at Old Umtali. These went like hot
cakes. Orders were given me for books in
several native languages as well as in English,
and no small part of my correspondence for

232 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

months to come was concerning the native
literature wanted from a half dozen sections
of Africa where months were required to get
an answer in return. Thus was inaugurated
the Katanga Book Store — the Methodist Book
Concern of Central Africa. Camps of con-
tractors working on the mine and the railroad,
in the town, and as forwarding agents to dis-
tant points, were to be found everywhere.
Several thousand recruited natives from all
parts of Central Africa were in the ever-shift-
ing population. I began holding regular serv-
ices in as many of the camps as I could reach,
and before long there were a number of camps
where we could hold afternoon schools as well.
Generally, I had at least eleven services each
Sunday, and many tribes were represented in
our audiences. On one Sunday I listed thirty-
five tribes as represented in the eleven services
held that day. Fortunately I had boys from
several tribes in the school, so could use them
as interpreters and as teachers for the camp
schools, and through them reach most of the
four or five thousand natives gathered about
Kambove at that time.

On June 6 the rails were laid into Kambove.
Owing to the very hilly nature of the country
for miles about Kambove, various engineers

ON JUNE 6, 1913, THE RAILS WERE LAID INTO KAMBOVE
KAMBOVE STATION, JUST AFTER DEPARTURE OF TRAIN

KAMBOVE 233

had declared that it would be impracticable
to bring the main line of the railroad near
to the mine. They proposed that the main
line pass at a distance of about ten miles to
the east, and that a branch be run to the mine
as is done in Elisabeth ville in the case of the
Star of the Congo Mine. But some higher
powers insisted that the road actually come
into or very near to Kambove and proceed
from there north, and at last a way was found
to do this. The stub from the main line is
three miles long, the Kambove station being
on the stub, one half mile from the junction.
Memorable to us will ever be the first sound
of the locomotive as it came puffing along at
the rail head just a few miles distant over
the ridge. It was sweetest music to us after
three years in the wilderness, and up to the
time of our departure it never ceased to be a
'great pleasure to us to go down to the station
and see the trains come and go.

On one of my first trips to Kamatanda, ten
miles from Kambove, I passed hundreds of
empty iron cement casks. I began to consider
how they might be used, and asked permission
to gather them up. As they had been thrown
away, there was no objection, and I set a gang
of my boys to work flattening them out and

234 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

bringing them in. I secured enough, eventu-
ally, to roof three buildings, put ceilings in
four buildings, and do several odd jobs with
them besides. Lumber was very expensive, so
I asked the boys about the trees on our place.
They pointed out some hardwood, ant-proof
trees of at least four varieties, and I had a
saw-pit dug. I had never seen lumber sawed
in a pit, and had only a general idea as to
how it was done. The very day that we fin-
ished the saw-pit, a boy came asking for work.
I said that I did not want any more boys
(didn't feel that I could afford to hire more).
He sat on the ground a while and then pulled
out a paper and handed it to me. It was a
recommendation of him as a saw-boy from a
missionary about three hundred miles away.
I employed him on the spot, and the next day
he and another boy were at work on our first
log.

In this way I obtained the very best and
most durable timber for all our door and
window frames, joists, etc., at a very small
cost. Then I was able to secure twenty boys
for about the cost of their food for ten days,
and I put them to carrying water to make
adobe bricks for our own house and one other.
Here Saul, who also had been of Kayeka's

KAMBOVE 235

party, was invaluable to me, as he knew all
about brick making.

I fully expected to do all the masonry and
brick laying for our house personally. Just
about this, time, one afternoon the boys raised
a shout of "Kaluwashi." As narrated in the
opening chapter he came to Lukoshi with
Kayeka. He told us the story of his visit to
his home as we sat about the fire that evening.
Kaluwashi had left us in February and it was
now August. He said he wanted to remain
with me for a couple of months and earn some
money so as to take back some presents to his
wife, who was a member of a local tribe in
Angola. She had said that at his home in the
interior there was nothing but the veldt and
savages, and he wished to take something to
her to prove the contrary. He had brought
an own brother and two other lads with him
to accompany him to Angola and to help him
in bringing in his family. I was grateful for
the services of the other three and Mbunda,
but hardly knew what to give Kaluwashi to
do, as I did not want to give him the same
rough work as the others. He simply said
that he was willing to do anything. I had
just begun to lay a retaining wall for a
veranda on the small residence we had built

236 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

for Mrs. Springer's mother, so I thought I
would have Kaluwashi help me. I at once
saw that he seemed to know just how to do
the work, so I left him alone with the task.
AVhen I came back I saw that he was working
all right and following the lines and on in-
quiry I learned that he was a mason by trade.
What a godsend he was !

He told me he wanted to lay the walls
of our main house, after which he would go
to Bihe to bring his wife and family. I laid
out the lines for the foundations of our main
house and Mr. Peter Grey very kindly came
to see if it had been done correctly. Much
to my satisfaction, it had. These skilled me-
chanics working along the railroad construc-
tion and in the mine were most ready to give
me any information that I needed or any help
in their power to give. This was my first
serious building operation, and that meant for
me a few problems in masonry, carpentry, and
tinning, and they helped me solve them. I
particularly remember a demonstration which
the tinsmith gave me in his camp on soldering
the guttering for the house by showing me
how he soldered three joints together and an
elbow. I was then able successfully to put
the guttering on the entire house.

KAMBOVB 237

I had all I could do and more to look after
all the work. I had to keep on the go from
one part of the station to the other. At times
I would have as many as five different build-
ings under construction at different stages.
First the boys would send me word that they
had finished one log and would I come down
and mark another. Then there would be need
of a door or window frame before the brick-
laying could proceed. Next I would need
to make the principals and put the roof onto
a house, then hasten off to see that the picka-
ninnies had brought in their stent of grass and
the older boys of poles. Food had to be
rationed out twice a day, and after quitting
time at 5.30, there was the daily clinic when
all the sore toes had to be tied up, wounds
carefully washed and bound up to prevent big
ulcers, medicine given for headache, stomach
ache, backache and fever, and all the other
ailments that beset a large crowd of natives.

Therefore, I had very little time left to do
any office work on accounts or correspondence,
and Mrs. Springer had to help me more than
usual in such work.

I longed unutterably to be able to give all
my time and that of my older boys to making
the most of the evangelistic opportunities

238 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

among the blacks and whites while they were
concentrated around Kambove, but that was
impossible. No little attention was given to
this work, but the building was the command-
ing consideration at this time. However, it was
not an unimportant lesson to the natives that
I was not afraid to work, and work hard, with
my hands and to do all sorts and kinds of
work. Among the natives a sort of caste exists
and they resent being put to several kinds
of work in one day. On several occasions, as
these little objections arose, I pointed out to
them that in a single day I was preacher,
teacher, doctor, nurse, mason, carpenter,
tinner, overseer, bookkeeper, judge, and peace-
maker, and what not. Such objections soon
ceased.

From the time the first letters began to
arrive from Mr. Heinkel, after he reached
Mwata Yamvo's, we were greatly concerned
about his health. We were greatly disap-
pointed in the delay of the missionaries for
that station. When Mr. Heinkel had a resi-
dence, cook house, etc., built of adobe brick
ready for the doctor to occupy, he wrote me
that he should leave there in October and sent
in his resignation from the Mission. So he
left Kayeka in sole charge and arrived at

KAMBOVE 2CD

Kambove on November 11. He had been very
ill on the way down, but was much better on
his arrival. He remained and helped me with
the building until February, when he left for
the United States. He had been with us for
three and a half years, and had been a great
help to us during that pioneering stage. We
regretted that his condition did not warrant
his staying out his five years, but we realized
the wisdom of his return at that time. The
adverse pioneer conditions of his work had
brought on a trouble that had affected him in
America. His service through these years had
contributed largely and essentially to the
establishing of the Congo Mission.

By the end of that year, 1913, our buildings
were well advanced and we had had a month
of school.

On Christmas we had a great celebration,
and nearly one hundred native young men,
many of them former pupils of a dozen mis-
sions near and far, mostly in the territory to
the east of us, sat down to the dinner served
in the chapel and schoolroom. What joy and
rejoicing there was among them, that at last
along the railroad construction a Mission had
been established to be a sort of home for them
during their stay while working in this sec-

240 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

tion. Hymns in several languages as well as
in English were heartily sung, and we rejoiced
greatly at the privilege of making a Christian
celebration of Christmas possible in contrast
to the drunken orgies about the canteens and
bars, and in many of the camps which had
characterized the railroad and its construction
in its twenty-five hundred miles from Cape
Town.

CHAPTER XVIII
A NEW EPOCH

As in these months we undertook the work
of building permanent stations, we grasped as
never before the significance of Livingstone's
words: "The end of the geographical feat is
the beginning of the enterprise." The value
to the Kingdom of Livingstone's heroic and
persistent explorations lies in the fact that
he broke the paths for, and inspired the estab-
lishing of six (if not more nearly a dozen)
missions in various parts of Central Africa.
These are not merely single stations, but enter-
prises each backed by large constituencies at
home, and that in their occupation cover large
areas, each with many separate stations.

Our exploration so far held in itself no
ultimate significance; the real enterprise lay
before us; our three years, together with the
earlier trip through this section, had served
to reveal to us the strategic centers for occu-
pation in this field. In building at Mwata
Yamvo's and at Kambove we were entering

241

242 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

upon the second and truly significant epoch —
that of the great missionary enterprise itself,
namely, the bringing in, the permanent estab-
lishing, and the loosening of those manifold
agencies of the Gospel in evangelization, edu-
cation, social ministry, and service, and such
an inclusive provision for the total needs of
this backward race as should lead the Church
to the full accomplishment of her mission.

Fundamentally necessary in this program
are the lives of capable, devoted men and
women, and the "New Epoch" was notably
marked in the early part of 1914 by the acces-
sion of such workers.

First to arrive was Mrs. J. E. Miller, Mrs.
Springer's mother, who traveled out to Africa
entirely at her own expense, and on March 7
reached Kambove to spend the year with us.
She entered at once heartily into the work,
teaching in night and forenoon schools, and
occasionally having afternoon classes for girls
and women. She attended practically all the
meetings on the station, contributing no small
part to their value and success, and was in
many respects a volunteer missionary. We
had arranged for her to come in the company
of Dr. and Mrs. Piper, but after one week in
England she decided she had had enough of

A NEW EPOCH 243

London rain and, with characteristic inde-
pendence, had come on alone rather than wait
another week. She had a delightful trip, and
although the eight days' journey by rail from
Cape Town was rather taxing, arrived in good
health and in splendid spirits.

Just a week later came Dr. and Mrs. A. L.
Piper, both of New York State, who were to
be supported by the Detroit Epworth Leagues.
The doctor had received his appointment early
in the year preceding, and we had fully ex-
pected him in May, but he very wisely con-
cluded that he would be much better off mar-
ried than single, and, seeing a ray of hope,
followed it up, and finally succeeded in bring-
ing with him the woman of his choice, namely,
Miss Maud Garrett, who for six years had
been a deaconess in New York City, and,
although the waiting had been trying, yet
when we saw Mrs. Piper, we knew that it had
been well worth while.

We had been very much concerned about
having to leave the new station at Mwata
Yamvo's so long without a white missionary,
but faithful Kayeka had taken such good care
of the work, carrying on both day schools and
evangelistic services, that it had not suffered,
but rather had gone ahead, so that the Pipers

244 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

had more than their hands full from the very
day they reached their station. It was neces-
sary for them to remain at Kambove seven
weeks to receive and repack their goods, and,
as Mrs. Springer was striving hard to complete
the revision of the translation of Mark, Mrs.
Piper took her school work off her hands. It
was a great help to me also to be relieved of
my daily clinic, which had been rather heavy.
During the rainy season I had as many as
fourteen boys at a time needing medical treat-
ment of one kind or another.

To return to the translation of the Gospel of
Mark, on leaving Lukoshi I had told Jacob
(who had been helping me on the translation)
that I wanted him to go to Mwata Yamvo's
with Mr. Heinkel, and besides helping in the
building, to spend a half of each day translat-
ing Mark into the Luunda. He did so and when
he came to Kambove brought the first draft of
the translation with him. The work was very
crude, naturally, and when Mrs. Springer
began to type it, she found it would have to
be revised. Fortunately, one of the carriers
wjio came down with Mr. Heinkel had been
too ill to return with the others, so that after
his recovery he was on hand for consultation
regarding words and phrases. Also, we had

A UBW EPOCH 245

brought six Lunda boys with us from Lukoshi.
Then there was Chosa, who came with Mr.
Heinkel. All of these, as well as Bimbi, the
sick carrier, wished to go with the Pipers back
to the Lunda country, so it was necessary for
Mrs. Springer to complete the work on the
translation before all of the Alunda left.
Jacob had already gone to his own country,
near Bulawayo, to find a Christian wife. When
Mrs. Springer had completed one revision, she
felt that another was required in order to
make this initial translation into the Luunda
as perfect as possible.

On April 28 I started with the Pipers to
take them to Eailhead, and a little farther on
their way to their far distant station — more
than four hundred miles into the wilderness.
The Construction Company was most obliging
in giving us free transportation over their
rails — as far as they were laid — so that night
we all packed into one tiny compartment:
Doctor, Mrs. Piper, myself, Melissa — James's
wife — Lutenda, the pickaninny, and the dog,
"Kambove," besides some twelve of the most
important loads. Mrs. Piper wondered at the
time, and the Doctor and I with her, what her
many friends in comfortable, elegant New
York would say to see her dumped in there in

246 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

that 6x6 compartment with two men, the na-
tive woman and lad, the dog and all; but she
was game to the core. Not a suggestion of
regret came to her mind I am sure. On the
other hand, she seemed to enjoy it as our train
rolled, creaked, bounced, and rolled along the
unsettled roadbed. We sang the grand old
hymns of faith, repeated Scripture verses and
poetry, and talked until weariness quieted us
down. The carriers and all the other loads
were piled on top of the already heavily loaded
trucks of rails, ties, and other construction
material. There was no chance for sleep or
for much rest for them, as they needed to be
awake and alert to avoid falling off. There
was not room for us in the guard's van to
make up beds and lie down, so we stowed our-
selves away among the loads and the dog as
comfortably as we could and dozed fitfully
until daybreak, when we got out and waded
through the tall wet grass five miles to a cara-
vansary, where we had breakfast. We then
went on twelve miles further and I spent the
night with them in order to show them how
to organize a caravan, to pitch and break
camp, and to get their loads into shape; and
then the next morning, right after prayers, I
turned back to Kambove, and they set their

MRS. MILLER, MR. AND MRS. SPRINGER, DR. AND MRS. PIPER,
MALISE, JAMES, AND LUNDA BOYS

MISSION HOUSE AT MUSUMBA OR MWATA YAMVO'S
MWATA YAMVO AND A FEW OF His FAVORITE WIVES

A N)Ew EPOCH 247

faces toward the great unknown, feeling — so
they wrote us — like orphaned children.

They had to go by the longest route via
Bukama, as the direct route was officially
closed on account of sleeping sickness. They
were delayed on one or two occasions for car-
riers and so did not reach Mwata Yamvo until
June 22. Word of their approach had pre-
ceded them and Kayeka led out a reception
committee of three hundred people from the
capital to welcome them. One can imagine
this crowd of people as they advanced singing
over and over the few Christian hymns which
they had learned, and lining the path on both
sides so as to let Dr. and Mrs. Piper pass be-
tween them. Near the house had been raised
a triumphal arch draped with white calico;
here they halted and Kayeka made a prayer
and an address of welcome. Then Mwata
Yamvo came out in his mono-cycle and wel-
comed them formally to his capital. I have
never heard of another instance where mis-
sionaries, coming for the first time to reside
in a country, have had so unique and so royal
a welcome.

At once the Doctor set the workmen to
building a schoolhouse, and in the second
month after their arrival Mrs. Piper began a

248 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

class for women and girls out under the trees.
The evangelistic and school work was rapidly
enlarged and these new missionaries had their
hands full from the very start.

Mrs. Piper wrote in one of her letters:
"Since our arrival here many kinds of labor
have been hurried along, the Doctor superin-
tending brick making and building, taking
care of the sick, and last — but most important
— trying to teach the blind eyes to see the King
in his beauty. Thus far much of my time has
been spent in the care and arrangement of my
home. Five weeks ago I opened a school for
women and girls. Some of these are elderly
women and their eagerness to learn is really
pathetic. Their poor hands are so stiffened
with hard work that it seems almost impos-
sible for them to hold a pencil and form
letters." Six months after their arrival Dr.
Piper wrote to Bishop Hartzell: "When we
left Kambove Mr. Springer nearly emptied
his Mission of boys to give us those who would
help us on our own trip up here and in the
work after our arrival. Some of these spoke
English quite well and were of no small help
to us. Later a number of people, ex-slaves,
arrived from the neighborhood of the mission
of the Plymouth Brethren at Kaleni Hill,

A NEW EPOCH 249

Rhodesia. Last of all, another group of forty
or so arrived from the mission of the American
Board in Angola. A large percentage of
these read quite well, not only in their native
tongue, but in English as well. Several have
for years been teachers and evangelists. These
immigrants are mostly ex-slaves like Kayeka,
who are returning to their native land. They
are a great help to me in evangelistic work.
At present we hold several services on Sunday
in different parts of Mwata Yamvo's town.
We send several native preachers out to some
of the many smaller villages round about that
can be reached in a day. The school enroll-
ment on the station is about seventy-five. The
medical work is limited only by the restricted
amount of time that I am able to give to it.
We are gradually getting the building done.

"I feel that this work in Central Africa is
deserving of rapid development, and I am very
anxious that our present plans should not be
detracted from. Already we are receiving re-
quests from outlying villages that native
teachers be stationed in them. There are
several other men in our mission village be-
sides those whom we are now employing, who
could be used to good advantage as teachers
and evangelistic workers, and every depart-

250 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

ment of the work is ready for rapid extension
and development if only there were more mis-
sionaries here and more funds for the work;
and yet, until more missionaries come, I do
not feel that we will be able to properly super-
vise a larger work." We particularly com-
mend to the reader his concluding sentence:
"Won't you remember in prayer our vast
opportunities, our pressing needs, and the
unique position of this station? While wre
have been here but a few months, this field has
all the characteristics of an old established
work."

.This report comes from the very town
where, while Mr. Heinkel was building the
house only a year previously, two little slave
children were buried alive with the corpse of
the mother of Mwata Yamvo in order that she
might have slaves to wait on her in the next
world. The purpose to do this was kept very
quiet, but our boys learned of it, but not soon
enough to prevent the horrible deed being
done.

Before leaving the subject of the Pipers, we
must add that their latest arrival is a baby
girl — Ruth Piper, who arrived on May 4, 1915.
She will be a blessing to the work at this sta-
tion from her early days, as the natives are

A NEW EPOCH 251

very fond of children. Deputations are coming
from far and near to see the wonderful white
baby. This presents to the parents many a
golden opportunity to give the gospel message
to hundreds who would not otherwise be
accessible to it for some time, or so open to
receive it. When Miss Ruth was taken to see
Mwata Yamvo, the king was very pleased and
in honor of the first white baby to be born in
his kingdom, he presented her with a bull calf.
What a fine thing it would be if, in deciding
on her life work, she should choose to be a mis-
sionary to the people among whom she was
born.

The week after the Pipers' departure from
Kambove, we opened the night school in the
little Truex Chapel near the railroad, and
until the outbreak of the war had a crowd in
attendance. Urgent requests for such a school
had been made for some time, but this was the
earliest that we could possibly take on this
additional work. Over two hundred enrolled
within the first month, and the average attend-
ance was over thirty. Mother Miller rarely
missed a night, and taught with all the eager-
ness of sixteen instead of more than sixty.
The fragrance and blessing of her influence
will long abide in the memory of the pupils of

252 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

those days, and the story of how "Mamma
Miller," whose head was crowned with silver,
came so long a journey, and just for the love
she had for the Master and for these needy
ones, gave her best, and manifested a deep
motherly interest in them, will be handed
down from one generation of boys to another.

On June 22 we had another addition to our
force in the persons of Rev. and Mrs. Roger S.
Guptill, from the New Hampshire Conference.
These energetic and well-trained young people
were able to take the entire charge of the night
school and of the Fox Bible Training School
from the first, though the rest of us continued
to teach a few classes. For myself I had
months of back office work, besides the daily
meed of duties, to fully engage most of my
time. The work was going along so nicely
and encouragingly, when — like a thunder clap
from a clear sky — the war cloud burst upon
us, as well as upon the rest of the world. Mrs.
Springer and I had just returned from a three
weeks' tour along the Railroad Construction
to the North, and never had the work seemed
more promising. We had sold no less than five
hundred francs worth of books to the natives
on that trip, besides holding services and talk-
ing with boys who were thinking of coming to

A NEW EPOCH 253

the school. The financial upheaval and chaos
produced by the war meant that the Railroad
Construction must be discontinued, and busi-
ness throughout the whole country suffered
greatly. Native troops were hurried through
to Lake Tanganyika, and all unemployed na-
tives about town were impressed into service
as carriers and hundreds of others engaged
for this service. Belgians, Britishers, and
Russians who were residents of the country
enlisted in local defense corps, and were drill-
ing both at Kambove and at Elisabethville to
be prepared for any emergencies, and contin-
gents went forward to Lake Tanganyika, and
scores went south, some to join other forces in
South Africa, others to proceed to Europe to
rejoin their regiments or to enlist in favorite
corps.

And just here let me say that the news of
the outbreak of the European war reached
Kambove at about the same time that it did
the United States. The news was received by
wireless, there being a surveyor with a porta-
ble equipment near Kambove at the time, and
from that day on all the notable news of the
war was received daily by cable and by wire-
less, and the news typed and tacked up at the
Railroad Station and elsewhere, so that in

254 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

spite of our long distance from the seat of war,
and our residence in the heart of Africa, we
were nevertheless promptly supplied with the
news. At Elisabethville the two local papers
published daily bulletins. .

As for our Mission activities, the evangelis-
tic work was restricted for a time on account
of the departure of thousands of natives with
the expeditions and others going to their
homes, but the work of the Fox Bible Training
School was benefited. Many of the boys who
had been planning to enter the school came
at this time. Some of them had money and
some had not, but these were willing to work
out the fee. When the war broke out a number
of unscrupulous contractors sought to cheat
hundreds of their natives out of several
months' pay. They frightened the boys by
intimating or telling them that the "Bula
Matadi," the Belgians, would impress them
for service as soldiers or carriers, whereupon
the boys bolted for home at night, leaving their
pay behind. The Construction Company at
once began to take action against the contrac-
tors in behalf of the natives, but it was im-
possible to right many of the wrongs, and
although native messengers were sent out in
all directions to call back any boys who were

A NEW EPOCH 255

not paid, hundreds had gone beyond recall.
As soon as the Company learned of the pur-
pose of these contractors, they sent out in-
structions for all the natives yet unpaid to
report at the headquarters near Kambove to
receive their wages, thus insuring their being
paid.

I have referred to the matter of fees. The
very day that we reached Kambove we an-
nounced that any adult natives who wished to
enter the school must pay the sum of one hun-
dred francs, twenty dollars, as an entrance
fee. They were getting good wages every-
where, and we considered that it was only
right that they should contribute what they
could for the support of the school. More-
over, we required this as a guarantee of good
faith on the part of the prospective pupil, that
he would observe the regulations of the school,
and also that he would remain for the five
years required. We have found at home, as
well as abroad, that humanity is most inter-
ested in the thing that has cost the most, and
we knew that the pupils would appreciate the
school more, and be more diligent in their
studies if they had to pay for entrance into
the school. That which costs little or nothing
is lightly esteemed. This is true even in regard

256 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

to the fellowship with God. A fellowship in
service with the Divine that costs dearly in
what by standards of earth we call comforts
and luxuries, grows rich and sweet and pre-
cious. For those called abroad to serve the
Kingdom there are rich compensations. The
missionary usually gets the best out of the
missionary enterprise. By having lopped off
the incidental and extraneous accessories of
life he comes to a realization of the true and
eternal values. Not uniquely so, of course,
because these lessons can be learned, and are
learned by some in every land and in every
walk of life, but the average missionary stands
a better chance to learn them than the average
man in any other walk or circumstances of
life.

Mr. and Mrs. Gup till early proved that they
were the right people for the right place. Mr.
Guptill had had rather an amusing experience
in choosing his life work. First of all, he
wanted to be a carpenter like his father ; then
there came the conviction that this was not
to be his life work, and he decided that he
would be a teacher. Later on came the call
to preach, and he reluctantly gave up his be-
loved idea of teaching. Then came the call
to missionary work while he was enjoying a

A NEW EPOCH 257

successful pastorate, and was looking forward
with keen interest to a life devoted to the
country church problem, but he gave that up
and turned to Africa, where, on arrival he
found that he could and must be carpenter,
teacher, preacher, missionary, and everything
else that one could think of combined, includ-
ing the running of a printing press.

I would emphasize the fact that the main
task in the Fox Bible Training School, which
now had found its permanent home in Kam-
bove, is the training of native evangelists and
teachers. Kambove has commended itself as
an excellent home for the School, since it
offers large opportunities for clinical practice
for pupils in teaching, evangelizing, and per-
sonal work and service in connection with
the thousands of recruited laborers employed
annually on the mine near at hand, and to be
employed on other mines within a radius of
a few miles. Such clinics for our pupils we
regard as being as essential and valuable as
hospital clinics for medical students.

It is impossible to accomplish the Christian
program by use of foreign missionaries alone.
In the first place, they are too few and too
costly, and in the second place they can never
be perfectly adapted agencies for the ultimate

S58 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

work involved. The brighter young men of
the various mission fields can receive a train-
ing at the hands of the foreigner, but the result
of that training never really is, and never
should be, a Europeanized or Americanized
Negro, Indian, or Chinaman. If such do
result there is essential failure. What is de-
sired is a renewed individual of the particular
race, transformed in his life by the regenerat-
ing power of God, developing a healthy type
according to the characteristics with which
God, in his wisdom, has endowed that particu-
lar race, and then working and living true
to that racial type. In other words, our work
is not to make Americans of the Negroes of
Africa, nor are Englishmen to make Britishers
of the Chinese, but we are to take the seed of
the Word and plant it in the soil of these vari-
ous races, then tend, prune, and train accord-
ing to the best wisdom that has been given us
under the definite leadership of the Spirit of
God, until our work is done and we shall be
called from our task in some distant future,
when, perchance, we shall discover that our
own life as a race, or as a distinct branch of
the inclusive human race, has been enriched
and broadened in a large compensation. At
the very least, the individual lives of all who

A NEW EPOCH 259

have labored at the task at home or abroad
will be lifted up and crowned by entering into
the true inwardness of sonship to God, Who
created, Who loved, Who gave, and Who lives
and works.

CHAPTER XIX
THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED

THE latter half of 1914 sped by rapidly,
crowded to the full with work for every one,
and marked by many interesting events which
must, of necessity, be passed over without
mention. The opening of the work at Elisa-
bethville, however, must not be omitted.
Elisabethville is the capital of the Katanga
Province, and is the largest town of Euro-
peans in all of the Belgian Congo, having had
as high as fifteen hundred such foreigners at
one time. The number of recruited natives
about this center has been as many as ten
thousand. About half of the European popu-
lation is Roman Catholic, and for them there
had been built a church, in charge of the Bene-
dictines, but no Protestant minister or mis-
sionary has so far resided there. Occasionally
the Anglican Railroad missioner from Rho-
desia has visited Elisabethville.

Just before the Pipers were to leave Kam-
bove, I received a telegram asking me to come

260

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 261

to Elisabethville and christen the infant of a
Belgian physician, a Protestant. This was
my first visit to Elisabethville since 1911. I
had been alone with the work, and with the
pressure of building, I had not been able to
go down there previously. On that Sabbath
I was asked to baptize another baby also ; the
child of a Swiss Protestant mother.

I took Simon with me, well supplied with
books from the Book Store, and left him to
visit the various camps, which I did not have
time to look up on this visit. A month later I
sent him back again with another lot of books,
among them some that had been definitely
ordered on his previous visit. On his return
this time he brought to me a petition signed
by twenty-four Christian young men from
Nyasaland, asking me to come to Elisabeth-
ville and organize them into a church, as they
had no place in which to meet on the Sabbath
and for prayer services, except out of doors in
front of their small huts. This petition was
headed by Moses and Joseph, who have been
previously mentioned. There were about
Elisabethville at this time more than one hun-
dred such young men, many of whom had
letters of church membership with them, and
who had been disappointed that there was no

262 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Protestant church with which they could
affiliate. I was told that at one time, two
or three years previously, there were as many
as five hundred of these young men from
Nyasaland, where there is but little industry
and only low wages, and so they had swarmed
over here for work and high pay. They were
the overflow from a very successful work that
had grown up in Nyasaland, where the school
system and chapels extend to nearly every
village. This is under the Scotch Presby-
terians, notably the Free Church, whose great
educational institution is at Livingstonia,
under the leadership of that most eminent mis-
sionary of Central Africa, Dr. Robert Laws.
These trained young men are taking a large
share in the development of the Katanga as
skilled workers, overseers, assistant masons,
carpenters, and cabinet makers, clerks, inter-
preters, compositors, store assistants, man-
agers of branch stores, cooks, personal serv-
ants, and as ordinary workmen. Owing to
the lack of a church center for them, there
has been a great wastage for the Kingdom.
The example of the more evil element among
the white men, and of some claiming a goodly
degree of respectability, had led many of these
native young men astray, as they had ob-

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 263

served the examples of drinking, gambling,
and immorality — the taking of native women
along the Construction. The almost utter dis-
regard of the Sabbath, and the consequent
necessity for these young men to work on Sun-
days had also been no small factor in their
undoing, but a certain number of them, like
Joseph and Moses, had remained steadfast.

In November I hired a hall and announced
services for nine o'clock on Sunday morning.
I was eating my breakfast at the hotel when
a young man rushed up to the back door and
broke out with the exclamation : "Please come
quick, Teacher, plenty much boys at the
church now." It was very true. We had three
large, overflowing services that day, and on
the part of scores of boys who had not had
the opportunities for education at their homes
there was an earnest request for a school, and
soon we had a flourishing night school, in
charge of Moses, who showed himself a most
capable and efficient teacher and manager.
With Moses and Joseph as a nucleus, I sifted
out the young men for church membership,
receiving many by letter, and took on a large
class of probationers, as well as a number of
"hearers," and so in December, when I was
accompanied by Mr. Guptill, at this capital

264 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

town we organized a Methodist Episcopal
Church out of Presbyterians and a few Con-
gregationalists. Dr. Laws, Eev. Donald
Frazer, and other missionaries have been most
pleased and relieved to learn of our work in
the Katanga, where we can shepherd their
boys. As they wrote me, their hearts had been
wrung at the reports they had heard of some
of their fine young men going utterly astray.
Our relations with these other Societies will
be reciprocal. We are reaching many young
men who are not Christians on arrival at the
mineral fields, and on their return to their
homes they will be given letters to the
churches there. The spirit of comity prevails,
and the young converts, passing from one mis-
sion to another, feel perfectly at home.

Bishops Hartzell and Anderson were to have
visited us early in September, but the outbreak
of the war delayed them and so it was New
Year's Day when Bishop Hartzell reached
Elisabethville, but without Bishop Anderson,
who had been prevented by war conditions
from coming. I met Bishop Hartzell at Elisa-
bethville. On the day previous I had arranged
a special interview with the Vice-Governor
General, who consented to introduce this item
of business into the holiday. Upon coming

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 265

out from this interview, we were met by ap-
pointment by Mr. A. A. Thompson, Manager
for Robert Williams & Co., who took us, in his
American-built automobile, to see the smelters
where the output for the month previous had
been fifteen hundred tons of bar copper, which
output has been continued through the
months since. We were shown excavations
for additional furnaces that would more than
double this capacity. The construction of
these furnaces was stopped for a time by the
war, but has been renewed owing to the large
demand for copper. Bishop Hartzell was
greatly interested to see the number of Ameri-
can machines and appliances about the^ large
plant, and to learn that Mr. Horner, the Gen-
eral Manager for the entire group of mines, as
well as the Mining Engineer and his staff, and
several other important employees of the
mines, were Americans.

We reached Kambove at 10 that evening.
At the railroad station that night all our
mission forces had gathered to receive the
Bishop. The nearly two score of boys and
young men had lined themselves up in military
fashion and gave him a salute as he passed
them, then falling in line at the rear, sang
hymns all the way to the Mission. This was

266 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Bishop HartzelFs initial visit to this field,
and he was surprised and delighted with the
development of the work.

The next day, January 2, which was also
our tenth wedding anniversary, Bishop Hart-
zell organized the Congo Mission, setting this
field off from the West Central Africa Mission
Conference, of which it had been a part; but
in these five years wre had not been able to
attend a single session of the Conference
which, in point of time and accessibility, was
nearly as remote from us as America. With
the completion of the Benguella Railway these
conditions will be greatly improved. For our
session we gathered around the table in the
dining-room of our residence — "Fox Villa."
The early forenoon sun still shone through
the door and flooded the room with great
radiance, like unto the joy that filled all our
hearts. Looking out through the clear panes
of glass in the door, the eye traveled over a
vast expanse of wooded forest for more than
eighty miles to the Congo-Zambezi Divide
toward the southeast, the mass of dark foliage,
lighted up here and there by brilliant scarlet
as a few trees put forth their new belated
leaves. The Bishop sat at the head of the
table, and on one side of him were Mr. and

THE OFFICE Fox VILLA GUEST HOUSE KAMBOVE

MOTHER'S HOUSE
MRS. SPRINGER COMING DOWN THE HILL

BISHOP HARTZELL AND MISSION GROUP, JANUARY 2, 1915

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 267

Mrs. Gup till, and on the other Mrs. Miller
and Mrs. Springer, and myself at the foot of
the table.

Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress
is our God," gave expression to our hearts'
deep emotions; then, as the Bishop followed
with the exposition of the Forty-sixth Psalm,
"Jehovah is our refuge and strength," etc., he
summed up the experience of the years past
and expressed what was our faith for the
future. We felt the Divine presence to be very
near and in the session of prayer following
each poured out his heart in praise, in conse-
cration, and in petition for the interests of the
Kingdom in this land. As the work of the five
years was reviewed and the present situation
considered, it seemed marvelous to us that
with so small a force and so limited resources,
so much had been accomplished. We were
anew overwhelmed with the sense of the per-
sonal presence of God, the Master Worker of
it all, and ourselves as his little children whose
sole business for the past five years had been
to walk quietly along, obedient day by day,
as His will, His purposes, and His plans were
made known to us, and His workings unfolded
before us. No tongue can tell what a blessed
fellowship, what a blessed sense of companion-

268 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

ship, aye, of partnership there was during
these years, and which grows stronger all the
time.

Geographically, the Congo Mission covers a
section about four hundred miles square, mak-
ing an area of one hundred and sixty thousand
square miles, a territory as large as Michigan,
Illinois, and Indiana combined. This region
is very near the exact center of Africa, and
has often been designated as the "unreached
Livingstone country." That great explorer
walked along all sides of it, except the north,
and he touched it on the southwest corner and
on the east. For all of this large area, we were
able to report only two main stations and the
beginnings of the work at Elisabethville.
Doctor and Mrs. Piper were at Mwata
Yamvo's, the capital of the Lunda field,
which is exactly the size of the State of
Michigan. They were unable to be present at
this interesting conference because of the
great distance. In what might be regarded
as the Illinois part of the field, there is the
Kainbove Station and the work at Elisabeth-
ville. To the north, in what would then be
the Indiana area, there was no Christian work
whatsoever, but in that area was the densest
village population of all, and there to-day

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 269

Kaluwasi and four of his associates at least
are ready to cooperate with the missionary
on his arrival.

When we turned from what had been accom-
plished and looked at the needs of the field,
the results achieved paled into insignificance
in view of what was to be done. We had a
keen sense of having just arrived and of look-
ing out upon the vast opportunities before us ;
but we now had roofs over our heads ; we had
boys and young men in training, and a few
earnest evangelistic teachers at work, these
all constituting samples to circulate among the
people, samples of what they were called to.
We had in operation the Book Store for the
dissemination of good literature of all kinds
to the peoples of Central Africa, and con-
nected with that a Mission Press ; and also we
had the beginnings of the Livingstone Me-
morial Library.

While the beginnings of the Book Store
have been given, I have not yet stated that the
original capital of two English pounds ster-
ling (ten dollars) was given me in 1907 by
a German Jew, a reservist in the German
army, as we passed through Kansanshi. He
came to Kambove with his three hundred
native workmen soon after our arrival in 1913,

270 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

and it was from him that I secured the twenty
boys to work on the adobe bricks. On the out-
break of the war he, with the other Germans,
was summoned and sent down to Pretoria to
be interned. A Russian Jew, with British
citizenship, gave me two pounds additional for
our work, and this sum I also added to the
capital of the Book Store.

The initial unit of the outfit for the Congo
Mission Press came from Detroit, Michigan,
having been given by the Kev. Arthur Wesley,
of the family of Methodism's founder. It was
added to by my uncle, Kev. I. E. Springer, and
his son, Durand, formerly a member of the
Book Committee. My uncle is a superannuate
of the Detroit Conference after fifty years of
service. As he and the Rev. George Marsh,
who had aided in perfecting and packing the
outfit, drove the last screw into the packing
cases, Uncle proposed that they consecrate the
outfit by prayer, and there, amid the packing
litter in that church basement, he poured out
a fervent prayer for rich blessing upon this
small outfit, and for the great publishing
house that is certain to grow out of it, and
for its great usefulness in the service of the
Kingdom in Central Africa. This press was
set to work a little later, in 1915, by Mr. Gup-

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 271

till, and the first impression from it was John
3. 16 in three languages. Mr. Guptill has
since turned off considerable material for the
class room, and has also produced the first
hymn book in the Luunda language. Later two
primers were undertaken for this same lan-
guage. The Press, though separately named,
is an integral part of the Book Store. What
an opportunity it has before it with the larger
part of Central Africa for a field !

Our plans include the employment of a
number of young men, many of whom will be
teachers and evangelists of the Mission, who,
like Jacob, know more than one language.
These will assist in the translation of books
into the various vernaculars, and then selec-
tion will be made from among these young
men to extend the translation to other dialects.
Our first attention will be given to such books
as Pilgrim's Progress; books of Bible stories,
helpful expositions, devotional books, etc., and
thus we will build up a literature for the
peoples in their own tongues.

While there are many tongues and dialects
in Central Africa, these fall into groups, and
by cooperation between the various mission-
ary agencies, union versions are being pro-
duced, thus reducing the linguistic difficulties

272 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

to a minimum. Scripture and Bible publica-
tion is almost wholly cared for by the British
and Foreign, the Scottish and the American
Bible Societies. These are essential adjuncts
of all missionary societies and, deservedly,
have the grateful appreciation of all mission-
aries, but, beyond what these do, there is great
need for presses right on the field to produce
supplementary literature for the enrichment
of the mental life of these peoples.

Mention was made of the Livingstone Me-
morial Library. In 1913, as our humble share
in the celebration of the Livingstone Centen-
nial, we decided to establish this Library to his
memory in connection with our work in the
Katanga, and we felt that it was particularly
appropriate that such a memorial library
should be located in this area, as we were in
the section of Central Africa last on his heart.
When setting out on his last journey, he wrote
to his daughter that he had three objects in
view; he wished to visit the copper mines in
the Katanga country, also some reported hot
springs, and to look up certain cave dwellers
of whom he had heard. These cave dwellers
we have never been able to trace. The hot
springs are about fifty miles east of Kambove.
As for the copper mines, we were in the very

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 273

midst of them. Kambove Mine, the second
largest deposit of copper in the world, is about
the center of the rich mineral field, which
extends for about two hundred miles in a
northwesterly and southeasterly direction.
Livingstone was the first European to make
mention of these copper deposits. On his first
trip from the Zambezi River above the Vic-
toria Falls to the West Coast and return, and
which trip wras then extended to the East
Coast, he heard from the natives of these
copper deposits, and located them approxi-
mately on his map. In 1914, when again
studying this map, published in connection
with his first book, it was with peculiar in-
terest that we noted the strange coincidence
that the location of the two stations we had
built in 1913 were the two notable geographical
locations that he had put on his map in this
region to the north, namely, "Musumba-Mati-
amvo" and "Reported Malachite Mines."
Through the years following his initial trip he
evidently never forgot the country of Chief
Katanga, then the great native ruler of this
section. And in 1872-1873 he was wrearily
plodding through the swamps, along the south
end of Lake Benguelo, and then was turning
northwesterly to visit this very region. This

274 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

evidently was ever with the hope that the
industry that would be introduced in connec-
tion with the development of these mineral
deposits would hasten the destruction of the
accursed slave traffic, which he hated with all
the intensity of his soul. And we can easily
believe that the needs of the unreached in-
terior were in his petitions as, alone in that
humble hut two hundred and fifty miles south-
east of Kambove, on his knees in that final
prayer, he poured out his soul unto God and
yielded up his brave spirit.

As I have elsewhere recorded, Robert Wil-
liams repeatedly avows his debt to Livingstone
that he first heard of these copper deposits and
was encouraged to send his prospectors a thou-
sand miles ahead of the railway and to per-
sist until they found these deposits. Living-
stone particularly mentions two hills of cop-
per, between which was a stream from the bed
of which natives washed gold. From the west
end of the house, in which as a group of Mis-
sion workers we were gathered, one sees, a
mile and a half away, two hills of copper, im-
mediately between which is the head of a gorge
recently given the name of Livingstone Spruit
(creek), where the early prospectors found
nuggets of gold, and which by the natives was

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 275

called "M'sidi's hole." Here at the Kambove
Mission, in sight of this stream bearing Liv-
ingstone's name, is where the infant Library
at present has its home.

Besides the main working reference Library,
to be affiliated in the future with our highest
educational institution, wherever it may be
located, and which will probably bear the
name of the Congo Institute, and which — in
some not distant decade — will be doing work
up to college grade, we want to have branches
in various towns and a circulating department
to help the reading public — European and
native — to beguile and improve their leisure
time.

The continued influence of David Living-
stone is still felt throughout all of Central
Africa, and no activity of Europeans in all
this land, be it commercial, industrial, govern-
mental, or religious, but owes a great debt of
gratitude to that intrepid servant of God who
opened up more than a million square miles of
darkest Africa to a new day and development.

Conference Sunday was a notable day; the
usual communion service brought together
quite a number of the Christian Capitas, who
make a point of being there on such occasions,
while the announcement of the coming of the

276 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Bishop brought quite a number additional.
One candidate (not the first by several, how-
ever ) was presented for baptism by the Bishop,
namely, Mubita, a Murotsi. It was a group
of his people that Livingstone led with their
elephant tusks to the West Coast that they
might find a market for their ivory, besides a
slave-mart. This trip was the beginning of
Livingstone's great explorations. Mubita had
been ready for baptism for some time, and we
had delayed the ceremony until the visit of
the Bishop, but this had not delayed the use
of Mubita as an evangelist. For some time he
had been my principal interpreter, and he
served in this capacity for Bishop Hartzell
this day. About Kambove were several groups
of his tribes, men working on railroad con-
struction, to whom he alone of all our helpers
could speak understanding^. After the bap-
tism Brother Guptill and myself received eight
boys on probation, and then followed the com-
munion service. On Easter Sabbath I had
taken in twenty-one probationers, and still
other groups later. A few had already been
received into full membership.

The task of appointing the few workers
available presented no serious problems to the
episcopal mind, but there was sorrow not to

THE CONGO MISSION ORGANIZED 277

be able to send men out to the several needy
points. Dr. and Mrs. Piper were already over-
taxed, and the work at their station called
aloud for immediate reenforcements of at least
one additional couple. Kambove likewise
demands two couples to care for the large
work and to extend it to the villages, which
latter line of work we simply had not been
able, up to that time, to give any time or atten-
tion to. Elisabethville but waited for the mis-
sionary, to blossom out into a great and exten-
sive work. Chilongo, sixty miles to the north-
west of Kambove, which is to be the junction
point of the Cape-to-Cairo and the Benguella
Eailways, and the point where the five-year
Construction Depot has been located, cries out
in its needs for missionaries. Then, further
to the north, Bukama, Kongola, Kinda, and
Kaluwasfs country, all these with no one to
go to them. No wonder we fell on our knees
and cried that laborers be thrust out into the
harvest, and that prayer surely will be an-
swered.

The financial review, a summary of which is
given as an appendix, "gave us great encourage-
ment with a total income in five years of f 23,-
030.65. Seven missionaries had been brought
to the field, and these had given sixteen years

278 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

of missionary service, and their expenses in
itinerating had been met. Buildings and per-
manent equipment to the value of more than
$6,000 were on hand. As we contemplated
what had been accomplished, we wondered
what relation our treasury sustained to the
widow's cruse.

On Monday the Bishop went with us to visit
the mine and to consult with the manager,
Mr. R. M. Johnson, a fellow American, about
future work among the native employees of the
mine. The Bishop was greatly pleased with
his visit and with the prospects for the future.
We also called on M. Ladame, Belgian Admin-
istrator Territorial.

Tuesday morning I accompanied Bishop
Hartzell back to Elisabethville, where there
was a wait of two hours before his train left
for the south. Mr. Horner, the General
Manager of the Union Miniere, came up to the
station in his automobile to meet the Bishop
and they had a pleasant interview. Then the
train bore the Bishop away to the south to his
other Conferences, well pleased with the infant
Congo Mission which he left behind and which,
as he wrote from the border, was a lively
youngster.

CHAPTER XX
A BUNCH OF OUK BOYS

has the distinction of being the first
pupil to pay the fee of one hundred francs
(twenty dollars) to enter the Fox Bible Train-
ing School. He came to me at the Mission at
Kambove one day and announced his intention
of coming into the school. We talked over the
conditions, which were that the boys must
accept our rules and keep them, agree to stay
five years in the school, and make payment of
this fee — all of which he said was perfectly
agreeable to him, and he would go at once and
get his box of things and enter the school.

I saw nothing of him for a few weeks and
had begun to fear that he had changed his
mind when he marched on to the grounds one
day carrying his box. He came to the office,
pulled out an old rag, and took from it one
hundred separate francs and laid them down
one by one upon the table. That pile of francs
looked good to me. On coming to Kambove,
where there was plenty of work and where
young men could get employment and in a few

279

280 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

months save up this amount, we had decided
that we would start out with the requirement
of this entrance fee. We recognized that it
might be a year or two before any boys w^ould
want schooling so keenly that they would pay
the fee, but here was Malaya coining with his
payment within six months of our arrival.
After he left the office I called Mrs. Springer
down to look at that pile of francs on my
table, and we rejoiced together over the reali-
zation of our faith that the entrance fee would
not constitute an insurmountable barrier to
any one washing to enter the school.

Malaya took up his studies with great ear-
nestness and made good progress for his age,
which might have been anywhere between
twenty-five and thirty-five. He had never been
to school before and had to begin with the
a b c's. He had not been at the Mission long
when he had dreams that greatly impressed
him. As he lay in his little hut in the com-
pound one night, he seemed to be visited by
One like unto the Son of God, who was travel-
ing from the West to the East. He spoke to
him by name and said, "Malaya, it is very good
that you have come here to study, but you
must not only learn to read; you must give
particular heed to the Great Book which the

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 281

missionary has brought. I will return later
and see if you have done this." A few nights
later the same visitor came to him again and
said, "Malaya, it is a very good thing that you
have come into the school, but it is not enough
for you to learn to read the Great Book; you
must also give your heart to God. I shall be
coming back this way again later on, and I
want to see that you have truly done this and
come into fellowship with your Heavenly
Father."

It was shortly after this that we had one
of our series of special meetings, and the first
night Malaya arose and gave his testimony
and said that he had decided to follow the in-
junction given him and give his heart to God.
From this time on he manifested a new spirit.
His conversion, like the conversion 6f all of
our boys, was quiet but very real.

He had left his wife at his home up near
Lake Tanganyika, several hundred miles north-
east. He soon asked permission to be absent
from the school long enough to go home and
get her that she also might come to the school
to be taught. When we left Africa he was
still absent on this journey, and we are greatly
interested to know whether he found his wife
still faithful to him or not.

282 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Chiyoka is an Umbundu from Angola. He
came to the interior with Kayeka, acting as
one of his carriers. Here was a case where
a boy, having exhausted all the courses offered
at the vernacular school, was hungry for fur-
ther education. Being a bright youth and
competent as a teacher he had been employed
in the mission school. This Mission had plans
for a higher institution to be established as
soon as possible. The years were going by and
it had not been established. Chiyoka's hunger
only increased with the years, and he was now
in the early twenties. Learning of Kayeka's
plan to come to the interior, and also learning
from Kayeka of the school that we had in
which we were teaching English, he asked to
be released to come to us. For some reason
his release was not granted at that time, and
so he quietly slipped away and joined Kayeka
some distance down the road. We make it a
rule when a boy comes from another mission
that he bring a letter of discharge from that
mission, as we wish to discourage the develop-
ment of "mission rounders," a class of youths
that do no good to themselves nor to the mis-
sions they favor by their presence. When
Chiyoka was unable to give us such a recom-
mendation and we learned that he had left

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 283

without the consent of the Mission, we insisted
that he must return, and if he could later
bring us a letter of dismissal we would receive
him. He went back the eight hundred miles
to Angola and matters had so changed that
at that time he was free to come to us if he
so desired. He set his face eastward again
and came a thousand miles to Kambove, mak-
ing nearly three thousand miles in all that he
had traveled.

He was able to pay only a few francs on his
entrance fee, but was willing to work out the
rest, and so for five months he assisted me in
the building operations, doing a skilled class
of work in laying up walls, plastering, etc.
He had just completed the payment of his fee
and had been in school a month when I dis-
missed a workman who had been helping me
in the building. Chiyoka had become fasci-
nated with this young man and was induced
to leave with him. I had a talk with him the
morning that he left, but he seemed utterly
deaf to reason, and would think of nothing
but going away with his friend. But the ex-
periences of the few months following brought
him to his senses and later he returned again
to the Mission a sadder and wiser youth. He
settled down to the routine of the school with

284 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

a rare and beautiful spirit, wMcli is his chief
characteristic. We have been able to use him
as a teacher in the afternoons and in the night
schools and, readily learning the dialects cur-
rent about the Kambove camps, he was useful
as an interpreter at a very early date.

Simon's home was about six hundred miles
southeast of Kambove. He came to the
Katanga, as have thousands of young men
from that same region, as to some Eldorado
where great wealth was to be realized. He is
of the Ngoni tribe, an offshoot of the Zulu.
He had completed the courses in the vernacu-
lar school near his home, and had also learned
some English and had been used as a sub-
teacher. He had been variously employed
along the railroad construction, and then one
day came to me asking for employment for a
year or so. He much preferred to be working
in a mission where he could learn a little more
English. I found him a very useful worker,
taking some of the classes in the vernacular
both at the Mission and in the camp com-
pounds near us. He was particularly useful
as a colporteur and evangelist, and I was able
to send him out on trips of more than one
hundred miles, selling primers, hymn books,

A BUNCH op OUR BOYS 285

Scriptures, etc., in the vernaculars and in Eng-
lish. He was my chief interpreter for some
time. The question is often raised whether
the Holy Spirit can work through an interpre-
ter. That question was finally answered to
my entire satisfaction in the use of Simon,
particularly in some of the evangelistic meet-
ings where we had the pleasure of seeing many
decisions made for Christ. After completing
his year's work with us he went home, and
expects to return later, bringing his wife with
him, and become a permanent resident in the
Katanga, probably to be associated with our
Mission as an evangelist and teacher.

There are in the aggregate scores of young
men, even better trained and more experienced
than Simon, whom we can employ at once as
teachers and evangelists in our work along
railroads and about the mines as soon as we
have missionaries on the ground to direct
them.

Kauseni was one of the twenty boys whom
I secured from a contractor for carrying water
to make the adobe bricks for our house. Dur-
ing those ten days that he was in the Mission,
though the school was not in progress at that
time, he became greatly interested and evi-

286 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

dently determined that later lie would come
and enter the school. When his master left
Kambove, he asked to be released and came at
once to us. To his eyes the school was the
best thing in sight, and he confessed later to
a heart hungering that had troubled him. His
decision to enter the school, as in so many
other cases, practically involved the decision
to turn to Christ, which he did soon after
definitely joining us. He had no money with
which to pay his fee and so had to work it out.
He was so promising a youth that soon I took
him from the work of building and put him
into the house as bedroom boy. He soon
advanced to the responsibilities of cook.
While he was working out his fee we had a
visit from Mr. Campbell, of the Plymouth
Brethren Mission, whose station was on Lake
Benguelo among Kauseni's people. When Mr.
Campbell left us for his home, Kauseni was
seized with homesickness and a great desire
to join him and return to his people, but Mr.
Campbell would not hear to it. He was not
going to take boys away from our school nor
to allow this boy to change his purpose simply
because of his visit. One object which we
hope to accomplish through the requirement
of the entrance fee is the development of a

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 287

persistence of purpose in the boys. Kauseni
listened to the admonitions of Mr. Campbell
as well as of ourselves, and soon settled con-
tentedly to his work and is developing splen-
didly in the school.

Weka is also of the Ngoni tribe, and has a
very forceful personality. He had worked for
four years along the railroad construction and
in the mines, and for the larger part of that
time had been a capita, that is, a trusty work-
man and overseer. He had had no schooling
and realized his handicap in competition with
many mission young men who had been asso-
ciated with Mm in those years. There had
also arisen in him a great hungering for some-
thing which was not satisfied in his present
life. One day a friend of his by the name of
Jim went down to Elisabethville and told him
that Bwana (Master) Springer had opened a
school at Kambove, and asked him why he
did not go. Weka thought a moment or two
and said, "I will go. I have a box full of good
clothes and I have money, but my heart is not
satisfied."

Not long after I saw him come onto the
grounds early one morning with his tin box
on his shoulder and, setting it down, he came

288 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

to me. In reply to my question as to what he
wanted, he said he wished to enter the school.
I told him to come and see me later at the
office. When I explained to him the condi-
tions under which he must enter the school,
he said that he understood them all, and at
once took out four English sovereigns to pay
his entrance fee. He then gave me five pounds
(twenty-five dollars) to send to the govern-
ment official near his home to place in the
hands of his wife and a young brother that
they might come and join him at the Mission.
He wished both to enter the school.

Weka's decision to come to school had evi-
dently also been associated with a determina-
tion to heed all the teachings of the mission-
ary, for not long after his arrival he an-
nounced that he was going to walk in the way
of Jesus. In giving his testimony and in pray-
ing, as well as in all his life, Weka manifests
the utmost seriousness and earnestness, at the
same time that he is of a jovial, fun-loving
disposition.

In due time we heard from the government
official to the effect that Weka's wife had not
been faithful to him, but had become the wife
of another man. I called Weka one afternoon
and told him the word I had received. Mother

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A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 289

Miller, who was sitting near, thought, of
course, that Weka would be terribly upset over
the news. What was her surprise when he
turned and said, "Longili" (all right), and
went down the hill whistling. When asked
later what he would do, he said, "I will go
home and make that other man pay me back
my four cattle that I gave for her, so that I
can have them in securing another wife."
Weka wanted to have the two children by this
wife come to him, but learned later that they
had died during an epidemic of smallpox.

Weka, who was about thirty-five years of
age, was one of the older of the native work-
men along the railroad construction, most of
them being young unmarried fellows. In the
majority of cases they had come out from their
homes to earn enough money to buy wives.
When a married man leaves his home for a
year or more, it is very common on returning
to find that, as happened in Weka's case, his
wife has been married to another man. This
constitutes one of the great problems that
must be faced in Central Africa, and will re-
quire the cooperation of the three great
agencies in Africa — the Church, the Govern-
ment, and the industrial agencies that recruit
and employ these men.

290 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

Although Weka had been an overseer for
years, on coming to the Mission he took his
place among the other boys, doing the hum-
blest work of the compound and of the Mis-
sion, but we have found him very useful in
supervising some of the younger boys. He
feels a great responsibility in helping to keep
order in the compound, and does not hesitate
to administer chastisement to some of the
young upstarts who forget their places.

Matenteko was our cross. He had had no
schooling, but was blest with plenty of egoism.
His employers had mostly been Belgians, and
he evidently had been allowed to argue the
point with them and to tell them how to run
the house, to do the work, etc. When he came
to the school he wanted to do the same with
me. I have had a number of pupils who
wished to tell me how to run the school, but
never in such a marked degree as Matenteko.
When he wanted to argue a case, and I would
quietly tell him that the point was not de-
batable, he would go away and talk it over at
great length to himself and to any one who
would listen to him. As we had taken him
into the house for work, he became a great
trial to Mrs. Springer.

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 291

Matenteko had great ambitions. Long be-
fore coming to us he had been investing his
money in things more or less needless to him,
evidently with the idea that these accessories
would bring him on the same level with the
white man. He purchased a folding cot, a
table, and a chair, and to crown all, he had
purchased from one of his masters a large
frock coat, in which his small figure was
entirely enveloped. These things he brought
with him. Oftentimes missions are criticized
by the man on the street, saying that we
encourage our boys to dress up in European
clothes, and that this results in their having
an exaggerated idea of their importance, and
that we encourage them in this idea. But
Matenteko is a shining example of the fact
that these boys get these clothes and these
ideas entirely apart from any contact with
the Mission. It was our painful duty to take
Matenteko in hand, and to seek to rid him of
these absurd ideas. He will be much easier
to deal with when many of his ideas gained
from the years of contact with the Europeans
before he came to the Mission are changed.
He was the one boy in our group that we often
felt we could dispense with without sorrow,
but at the same time we felt that he was a part

292 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

of our work and that we could not dispose of

him.

>

Mubita was one of the two young men that
came from near Victoria Falls, eight hundred
miles southwest, and joined our school out in
the woods at Lukoshi, and the one baptized
by Bishop Hartzell. He was an earnest, hard-
working pupil, but not brilliant as a student.
When I excused Jacob and Peter and James
for months, in order that they might hunt up
some wives, my main helper was Mubita. He
had left a wife at home and expects some time
to go back to see if she is still faithful to him.
If so, he will probably bring her to the
Katanga. At his home he has a number of
head of cattle, so that from a native point of
view he is quite well off. Even though still in
the middle of his course, he is very useful in
teaching and evangelizing, also as a colporteur
for the Book Store.

Nelson was a bright young lad from the
Congregational Mission (English) a few hun-
dred miles to the east of Kambove. He came
out to the mining district to earn money and
at first had a good deal of sickness. He had
found no place that looked like home to him

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 293

until he reached our Mission. We soon em-
ployed him as a house boy, and on the arrival
of Mr. and Mrs. Guptill he was employed in
their kitchen. He also became their teacher
in the Chiwemba, and acted as general inter-
preter as well. He was a bright young fellow,
but inclined to be heady. However, he soon
settled down. Lately he has been wanting to
qualify as a teacher and evangelist in connec-
tion with our Mission. He is one of four boys
in this group that have been connected with
four different mission societies before they
came to the Katanga to find work. There are
many partly trained boys whose lives are go-
ing to waste along railroad construction and
whom we are hoping to reach, and are reach-
ing, and whom we will utilize in the work of
the Kingdom.

Kansamba was distinctly one of the lesser
lights of the Mission. He was brought to us
by his parents at Lukoshi. He was defective
in his hearing, and this had affected his de-
velopment so much that in the village he was
fast drifting toward idiocy. He was really
very bright and needed only the care and
attention of kind hearts to develop into a nor-
mal boy. He had special gifts in writing,

294 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

drawing, etc. Thousands of boys like Mni are
lost in the villages of Central Africa because
no one understands them and no one knows
how to remedy their defects.

Mugala was really not of our school. He
came to us through the night school, saying
that he wanted to remain with us for a few
years, but the fascination of the old life in
town was too much for him. He evidently had
no deep-seated desire to change his life. We
discovered that he was unreliable and inclined
to be a thief. When spoken to about these
matters he declared that he did not care to
enter school, and so he went away from the
Mission, despite our efforts to influence and
to keep him.

Ngamba is the slave boy mentioned as being
bought for a plate of meal by one of Kayeka's
carriers as they were coming through the
famine country. On their arrival at Lukoshi
I noticed that he watched me intently at any-
thing that I was doing. He was very keen to
learn and showed great aptitude for machinery
and for all kinds of industrial work. Among
the people of Central Africa are to be found
the rudiments of all the arts and industries.

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 295

They are more or less adepts in the working
of iron, in wood-carving, decorating, etc., to
say nothing of the great industry of agricul-
ture.

Ngamba was the most willing person when
working along the lines of his interest and
desire. When traveling on the path I found
him the best runner to keep along with the
bicycle, and to be on hand for any errands I
wanted done. But at times he was as stub-
born as a donkey. We soon took him into the
house as a servant. One great difficulty with
him was that he loved to wear his old, dirty
clothes, though he had plenty of good clean
ones. Admonition was not sufficient in his
case. At times I had to take him to his hut
and fairly take his old clothes off and have
them destroyed. He was very bright in his
school work and in general he has been very
reliable and gives promise of great usefulness
in the future.

Mulaya, otherwise Joab, as we dubbed him
to distinguish him from Malaya, would cer-
tainly take the prize as the ugliest boy in
school, but he would also take the prize for
being the most willing of spirit. He came first
to the night school near the railroad station,

296 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

and declared his intention of entering the
boarding school. There was some money
owing him along railroad construction and he
went up to collect it. His creditor disclaimed
the debt and threw him into a fire, burning his
knees and elbows. Missing him for several
evenings at the night school, I asked a friend
about him, and was told that he was lying
with his wounds in a hut not far away. I
found him with several large sores from the
burns, and had him brought into the Mission
at once and attended to him. Soon he was on
the way to recovery.

He had no money with which to pay the fee,
but cheerfully went to work for five months
to pay it off. He continued his studies at
the night school during this period, and was
ever ready to assume large responsibilities in
seeing that everything went on well.

The boys took much pleasure in escorting
Mother Miller to her house, and Joab was
always on hand to take over her books, carry
the lantern, and see her safely home, even
though he might be assisted by several others.
He was some distance from his home, which
was near Broken Hill, belonging to the same
tribe as James, and was, as far as we know, the
third boy of that tribe to go to school. To us

A BUNCH OF OUR BOYS 297

he was always most obedient, but among his
peers in the compound he always stood up for
his full rights, and would allow no imposition
upon them without protest. Another young
lad there about the same age was very heady
and cheeky, and was constantly trying to lord
it over Joab. There was almost a daily neces-
sity of separating these two, as they were
attempting to settle their disputes. He has
the stuff of which efficient, reliable workers
are made.

It is often a puzzle to some people as to why
missionaries are so keen to get back to their
respective fields. I wonder if in the recital of
these cases there is not an answer to that ques-
tion. The Mission constitutes the only chance
and hope for better things for these boys. Had
it not been for our coming to Kambove at this
time, there would have been no schooling for
any of them. As we see their hearts and lives
respond and see them transformed from wild,
willful, selfish individuals into efficient work-
ers for the Kingdom, is it any wonder that we
are keen to remain at our task and to serve
those in whom we find such large returns for
our investment of life and endeavor?

CHAPTER XXI
AS TO THE FUTURE

THAT a great future industrially lies im-
mediately before Africa, no informed person
can doubt To-day African exports of gold, of
diamonds, and of copper figure largely in the
world's totals. Fruit, corn, hides, rubber,
ostrich feathers, hardwoods, copal, from all
parts of this vast continent, find their way in
large quantities to nearly all markets, and this
is but the beginning. Men who know the vari-
ous sections well are continually remarking
that the resources of the continent have been
merely scratched.

So inaccessible by water is the interior that
this vast continent has had to await the rail-
road age for its development and for the out-
pouring of its fabulous wealth. Up to the
present, the steel rails have crept inland from
a few ports and the beginning of linking them
into one vast system in the interior has been
made.

Sir Harry H. Johnston, experienced adminis-
298

As TO THE FUTURE 299

trator of various colonies, and the well-known
author of several informing volumes on Africa,
in speaking before the Koyal Geographical So-
ciety of Great Britain in June, 1915, spoke of
"The Coming Discovery of Africa," in these
words :

"When the trouble of the war is over the
real discovery of Africa will begin. We have
only so far set out Africa with tolerable cor-
rectness on the map and glanced with an in-
quiring and scientific eye on its surface in
some small portions. These investigations
from 1884 onwards revealed or suggested such
astonishing sources of wealth to humanity that
they have stimulated that colonial movement
in regard to Africa which lies at the base of
the present war. What has been revealed,
however, is probably trifling compared to
what remains to be discovered. I venture to
predict that a good deal of the area of the
Sahara Desert will be found to be rich in oil-
bearing strata, and some of its mountains and
plateaux on the verge of the Sudan wealthy in
copper and perhaps in tin; that the mineral
wealth of Somaliland, of Abyssinia, of the
Nile-Congo water-parting, of Darfur, of Ka-
tanga above all, of Eastern Angola, of Liberia,
of Rhodesia, Portuguese East Africa, Nyasa-

300 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

land and the northern and central Cameroons
will eventually justify the vague surmises or
the actual predictions of prospectors. In
regard to this branch of research I should like
to call attention to the really valuable reports
issued from time to time by the Imperial In-
stitute, because they have justified my predic-
tions in the past. Then there are the sources
of vegetable wealth in the wild produce of the
forest, or in the climate and soil needed for
plantations. There is the oil-palm, the produce
of which can now be utilized to any extent
without much fear of its depreciation in value
through over-production. Kubber, coffee,
cocoa, sugar, pineapples, bananas, oranges,
even apples, peaches, plums, and grapes are
becoming items of importance already in Afri-
can exports. As regards animal products,
something really intelligent in the way of
elephant conservation may keep the world
sufficiently supplied with ivory. Vast tracts
of Africa are already being opened up for
cattle-breeding and horse-breeding. Once the
French get to work with their trans-Saharan
railway or railways, and once there is assured
peace in trans-Zambezian Africa, an enormous
increase will take place in African exports of
mineral, vegetable, and animal produce.

As TO THE FUTURE 301

"I have only attempted to give a general im-
pression of the known wealth of Africa and its
location. But I should like to point out that
the most recent results of exploring Africa
have led to some of its deserts proving more
valuable than regions obviously fertile and at-
tractive to the eye. The high veldt and the
northern Karoo in South Africa, Namaqua-
land and many parts of the northern Sahara
were regarded as hopeless, eternally desolate,
and worthless tracts of country a few years
ago, which would never pay for opening up.
Now they turn out annually millions of
pounds' worth of diamonds or copper, of phos-
phates and other mineral manures, or yield
obvious indications of oil-bearing strata below
the surface. The desolate thorny Haud of
Somaliland, dreary, treeless, waterless tracts
in East Africa, are either oil-bearing or have
valuable deposits of soda or phosphates. Much
of the Sahara Desert will prove worth railway
construction on account of its phosphates, its
salt, and its petroleum. My map of great rail-
ways of the future represents with scarcely
an addition or exaggeration the existing rail-
ways and the published railway projects of
Africa in, let us say, July, 1914. Unless West-
ern and Eastern Europe emerge utterly bank-

302 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

rupt from this devastating war, we may per-
missibly imagine that they will next put their
capital^ not into the making of further arma-
ments to destroy one another, ~but into the war-
fare against hostile and grudging Nature. And
in this struggle our most potent arm is the
railway. Also there is no agent so pacifying
as the railway. If some advisers had been
listened to in 1901-3 we should not have wasted
about four million sterling in warring against
the Mad Mullah in the deserts of British Soma-
liland, but we should have built a railway
through some part of that country. Such an
enterprise at once captures the imagination
of the savage, or the semi-savage, and at the
same time provides wages for restless avari-
cious warriors. It will be noticed on my map
that there may be two alternative routes from
the Cape to Cairo: one through Katanga
(nearly complete now as far north as Stanley
Falls), the Bahr-el-ghazal and el-Obeid; and
the other through Nyasaland, past the .Victoria
N!yanza to the lower Sobat and Khartoum.
But people in South Africa who want not only
variety of route and perhaps an even quicker
way of reaching Britain (or, vice versa, those
among our grand-children who wish to pro-
ceed to Cape Town by rail in preference to the

As TO THE FUTURE 303

riskier airship) are recommended to try the
Tangier- Fez- Agades-Kano-Leopoldville line.
This will consist of the French Trans-Saharan
railway (already completed nearly as far as
Igli), and will link up with a great number of
coast railways already constructed in West,
West-Central, and South- West Africa. 'Tan-
gier to Cape Town without changing !' WThat
a splendid achievement that will be! Very
likely by then we shall have got the Channel
railway tunnel in working order, and a steam-
ferry will take the London train from Alge-
ciras to Tangier; so that conceivably forty or
fifty years from now we may be able to get
into our 'sleeper' at Victoria (London) and
emerge from a delightful unbroken train jour-
ney in a glorified Cape Town — a city which
Nature has destined to be one of the most
beautiful in the world ; a city which is the only
appropriate capital for United South Africa."
Our Congo Mission area includes nearly all
of the mineral region referred to above as
"Katanga above all," with its deposits of cop-
per, iron, lime, tin, gold, and its vast water-
power possibilities. The Cape-to-Cairo Rail-
road, connecting with six South and East Afri-
can ports, traverses our eastern border for five
hundred miles, and soon will have connections

304 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

i

with at least five other ports on the east, the
west, and the north coasts. What Chicago,
"the city that cannot be avoided," is to
America, that the Katanga — our Congo Mis-
sion area — will be to Africa, the junction point
of the great Continental Kailways. And
happy is the fact that this section is blessed
with a salubrious climate, possessing an eleva-
tion from three thousand to five thousand feet
above sea level, and a mean annual tempera-
ture of about eighty degrees.

A stable European government exists and is
assured for the future. The industrial-com-
mercial development is proceeding and is cer-
tain to increase rapidly. What about the
educational, moral, social, and religious needs
of the millions of untutored, backward, imita-
tive natives whose cooperation in all the de-
velopment of Africa is absolutely essential and
really for their good — if under favorable condk
tions?

The dangers that lie ahead can be seen from
the experience of Johannesburg and vicinity,
where on mines and in towns four hundred
thousand native workmen are continually cen-
tralized. These come from every part of the
sub-continent, and even from Central Africa.
The majority engage for labor during limited

As TO THE FUTURE 305

periods of six months to a year, and then
return to their homes ; others in large numbers
are settling permanently in the towns, either
bringing their wives from their former homes,
or else picking up girls and women in town,
but in many cases forming no permanent
domestic relations. These natives are wage
earners almost without exception and are ad-
vancing rapidly in industrial ability and in
earning power. They have a limited number
of needs, and so have considerable money to
spend. Vicious white men prey upon them,
pandering to their weaknesses, to their lusts,
and to their vanity. The sale of European
liquors to natives is prohibited by law, but on
the Rand illicit liquor selling is an extensive
and thriving business. Recently there were at
one time six hundred European prisoners in
jail in Johannesburg on charges of this illicit
liquor selling to natives — to say nothing of
those still at large. There is a commingling of
members of the black and white races in vice,
involving both sexes of both races in and about
Johannesburg, that is absolutely revolting to
learn about, to say nothing of having to face
in actuality.

Johannesburg is rightly considered the
greatest and most important, as well as the

306 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

strategic mission center in South Africa.
Similarly, and for the same reasons, the min-
eral district within the Congo Mission area
is and will be increasingly the strategic mis-
sion field of Central Africa.

Johannesburg is the greatest industrial and
manual training center in the subcontinent,
and the native workmen are continually being
raised to greater degrees of efficiency in the
efforts of the mines to reduce the working
costs. As a result the native employees are
advancing to more and more responsible posi-
tions and better paid jobs. A similar process
is already at work on these mines in the
Katanga.

Johannesburg has also been justly termed
a "University of Crime," despite the presence
of many good citizens and not a few mission
workers in the vicinity. Likewise this Ka-
tanga mineral field is a school of crime, of
lewdness, and of many forms of evil, and will
be so increasingly unless the forces of right-
eousness become active and make impossible
the development of conditions similar to those
which obtain in the older mining center.

This is a new mining area. These forces of
evil are as yet individual and occasional. In
the Katanga we have the opportunity of

As TO THE FUTURE 307

almost an even start. It remains to be seen
whether the forces of evil will be allowed an
unhindered, uncontested opportunity of becom-
ing firmly established and organized as they
are in that older mining center of South
Africa, or whether there will be leaders for
righteousness on the ground to watch, to warn,
and to oppose, aided as such leaders can and
would be, by the governmental and industrial
forces of the country. Just as in America and
in Europe, the Church must furnish the rally-
ing point and the aggressive campaigner in
the fight against vice. Will we meet the chal-
lenge of the opportunity and have our men at
every important point from this time on, that
is, at Elisabethville, Kambove, Chilongo, Bu-
karna, Kuwi, Dilolo, Kalonga, and elsewhere?'
Most people agree in these days that when
everything is summed up, the world is, on the
whole, getting better, but there are spots that
unquestionably are growing worse, and the
vicinities of many of these industrial centers
are among these. The evil forces have so far
predominated over the good. The industrial
and commercial development of Africa is pro-
ceeding very generally throughout the conti-
nent, and is many fold more active and general
than is the work of missions. "Civilization"

308 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

as represented by European clothing and per-
sonal effects, by stores, by bars, by better
roads, by bicycles, by the telegraph, by steel
rails, by bricks and corrugated iron, by the
clock-regulated whistle of the mines and the
shops, is impotent to hold the heart of the
white man to the good he learned in his youth,
or to change the heart of the dark denizen of
the woods of Central Africa to the better
things and to a new life.

To state it differently, the natives of Africa
are not remaining in status quo, following the
comparatively indifferent customs of unre-
lieved paganism, but through the partition of
Africa among the powers of Europe, through
the exploitation of the resources of every nook
and corner of the continent, through the com-
mercial products dumped into every section
of the land from all parts of the world, the
African has been related in an intimate and
vital way to the entire world. His quiet life
in the village, formerly sufficient of itself for
all his needs, has been rudely overturned. His
tribal tenure of land has been bewilderingly
interfered with and restricted and in essential
respects denied. His over-lords demand
strange and inexplicable taxes and service,
many of his customs have been forbidden, re-

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As TO THE FUTURE 309

straints to excess and youthful folly formerly
exercised by the parents and the tribe have
been swept away in the name of personal
liberty, and the virile youth of the tribes have
been tempted and invited to Irng absences
from home to labor for the stranger. To this
child race it is all bewildering, but the African
is rubbing his eyes, he is awaking, he has a
happy faculty of self -adjustment to new condi-
tions; his philosophy of life leads him to ac-
cept what is and to adapt himself to the cir-
cumstances of the hour. He sees that the old
has passed away or is passing ; he looks to see
what the future has in store.

But he is a child: he has no chart or com-
pass for the new sea of life upon which he has
been thrust. In his sky there shines no fixed
North Star or Southern Cross to aid him in
his reckonings. The checks that primitive
life develops are being left behind with the
crumbling huts in the forest. New tempta-
tions, new dangers, new vices face him in these
new and strange circumstances. New powers
of money, new ambitions, and new ideals greet
him in the new Africa of to-day. There is the
meeting of aggressive, powerful, selfish, com-
mercial Europe with primitive, scantily clad,
backward, pagan Africa. For the solution of

310 PIONEERING IN THE CONGO

the problems that have arisen in this connec-
tion, there is required a program that con-
siders and provides for the complex needs of
the individual, of the family, of the commu-
nity, the village, and tribe, for all the hours
and days of the week, and that serves the
physical, the mental, the social, and above all
the religious needs of all these units and
groups.

Thus thoroughly inclusive is the program
that is required. Nor is this a program that
can be fully and minutely elaborated in ad-
vance. "Each institution must work out its
problems on its own ground" must be the guid-
ing principle here also. The need is for men
and women aware of the experience and wis-
dom of the Church in the past and alive to the
best thought and methods of the latest day,
living, thinking, evangelizing, teaching, guid-
ing, and training, and thus meeting the total
needs of the various groups. And full recogni-
tion needs always to be made of the fact that
while the Church is the distinctive factor, it is
not the only factor in the advancement of the
Kingdom of God. Government, commerce, and
industry all have their part to play in the
total work of the extension of the Kingdom of
God upon earth. The officials and agents of

As TO THE FUTURE 811

these other factors are sometimes conscious
and sometimes unconscious of the part they
do play, or should, in this program, but it
is a notable fact that many of them gladly
respond to the leadership of the ecclesiastical
forces for the betterment of society and the
correcting of evil conditions. While the Congo
Mission represents one particular denomina-
tion in this field, it will not and cannot work
merely to further denominational interests.
The natives who congregate on these mines
and centers are from the areas of a dozen
different denominations. Those who are con-
verted and join our church will be given letters
to their several churches on their return to
their homes. And we request those denomina-
tions who have members coming to work in our
field to give their young men church letters.

So that a distinctly Christian rather than
denominational work has been begun, a work
of and for the Kingdom. And to such a policy
and to such a program the Congo Mission
stands committed.

Much of the "geographical feat" has been
accomplished and now before us lies the great
missionary "enterprise." Let us go forward
to the task in the spirit of that other saying
of Livingstone's,

"I WILL PLACE NO VALUE

ON ANYTHING I HAVE OR MAY

POSSESS EXCEPT IN RELATION TO

THE KINGDOM OP

CHRIST"

LIVINGSTONE'S MONUMENT AT CHITAMBO'S, N. RHODESIA,
WHERE His HEART is BURIED

APPENDIX

STATEMENT

MADE FROM THE AUDITED ACCOUNTS OP THE

CONGO MISSION

OF THE

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

FOR THE PERIOD 1910-1914

RECEIPTS

Special Gifts received through
the Board of Foreign Mis-
sions $15

Special Gifts from U. S. re-
ceived on the field

Dr. Fox Fund:

Principal $2,700.00

Interest 485.00

357.32
235.00

From J. M. Springer:
For Circular Let-
ters $337.89

For Cyclostyle.. 119.32

Contributed by Europeans in
the Belgian Congo

Value of Timber and other
Building Materials received
free on the field

Collections (mostly fron na-
tives)

School Fees at Kambove

From the Board for Outgoing
of Dr. and Mrs.
Piper $834.20

Outfit for Pipers. . . 200 . 00

Outgoing of Rev.
and Mrs. Guptill 1,141.33

Advance on Salary
of Dr. Piper 408.96

Received from two Jews, ap-
plied as original capital of
Bookstore

3,185.00

457.21
154.91

704.35

142.37

190.00

,584.49
20.00

$23,030.65

EXPENDITURES
Sixteen years of missionary

service (salaries) $7,957.63

Outgoing of seven mission-
aries 4,547.66

Buildings — Lukoshi, Mwata

Yamvo, Kambove 3,831 . 75

Household Furniture 676 . 36

Station Equipment, organ,

bicycle, tent, lantern, etc. . 568.43

Printing Press 406.77

Tools, etc....' 870.44

Itinerating 276.98

Transportation 951.37

Evangelists and Native Help-
ers 700.50

Support of Pupils 1,311. 13

Special Women's work 13 . 00

Circular Letters 402.63

Taxes and Incidentals. 315 . 18

Exchange, etc 180.82

Capital furnished Bookstore. 20.00

$23,030.65

JOHN M. SPKINGER,

Treasurer.

r^J H*V7*r.¥*&

Of 7KCEHTML AFRICA
MISSION FIELD

JOHN /tfMTM

Y 1 9282